The Unknown Prophecy
by Aryestelle
Summary: It is 6 moons since The Last Hope. The prophecy was fulfilled, the clans are rivals again, and all seems normal. But what if there is another prophecy, one that no one knows about, not even StarClan or the Ancients, one that can only lead to the destruction of the clans? Now, four new cats with the powers of their clans face great trials on a path that may lead to darkness...
1. Allegiances

_Author's Note: __Okay, my first time writing a Warriors fanfiction! Anyways, this story is set around 6 moons after The Last Hope, so the allegiances have been adjusted accordingly using what information was available as well as my own opinions, and some of the cats were added for the story of course. As mentioned, this story takes place after The Last Hope, and it is also sort of connected to the whole Power of Three deal, so beware of spoilers as you continue._

_**WARNING: SPOILERS IN THIS STORY FROM THE LAST HOPE AND PREVIOUS BOOKS**_

**Allegiances:**

**ThunderClan**

**Leader: **Bramblestar- dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Deputy: **Squirrelflight- dark ginger she-cat with green eyes

**Medicine Cat: **Jayfeather- gray tabby tom with blind blue eyes

**Warriors:**

Brackenfur- golden brown tabby tom

Cloudtail- long-haired white tom with blue eyes

Thornclaw- golden brown tabby tom

Leafpool- light brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes, former medicine cat

Spiderleg- long-limbed black tom with brown underbelly and amber eyes

Birchfall- light brown tabby tom

Whitewing- white she-cat with green eyes

Berrynose- cream-colored tom

Hazeltail- small gray-and-white she-cat

Mousewhisker- gray-and-white tom

Lionblaze- golden tabby tom with amber eyes

Foxleap- reddish tabby tom

Icecloud- white she-cat

Toadstep- black-and-white tom

Rosepetal- dark cream she-cat

Briarlight- dark brown she-cat

Blossomfall- tortoiseshell and white she-cat

Bumblestripe- very pale gray tom with black stripes

Dovewing- pale gray she-cat with blue eyes

Apprentice, Lilypaw

Ivypool- silver-and-white tabby she-cat with dark blue eyes

Apprentice, Seedpaw

Sorreltail- tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with amber eyes

Poppyfrost- tortoiseshell she-cat

Molefoot- brown-and-cream tom

Cherrypelt- ginger she-cat

**Apprentices:**

Lilypaw- dark tabby she-cat with white patches

Seedpaw- very pale ginger she-cat

**Queens:**

Daisy- cream long-furred cat from the horseplace

Brightheart- white she-cat with ginger patches, mother of Cloudtail's kits: Snowkit (white tom with amber eyes), Dewkit (gray tom with amber eyes), and Amberkit (gray-and-white she-kit with amber eyes)

Cinderheart- gray tabby she-cat, mother of Lionblaze's kits: Sunkit (golden tom with blue eyes) and Sootkit (dark gray tabby tom)

**Elders:**

Purdy- plump tabby former loner with a gray muzzle

Graystripe- long-haired gray tom

Dustpelt- dark brown tabby tom

Sandstorm- pale ginger she-cat with green eyes

Millie- striped gray tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**ShadowClan**

**Leader: **Blackstar- large white tom with one jet-black forepaw

**Deputy:** Rowanclaw- ginger tom

**Medicine Cat: **Littlecloud- very small tabby tom

Apprentice, Fieldpaw

**Warriors:**

Oakfur- small brown tom

Smokefoot- black tom

Toadfoot- dark brown tom

Applefur- mottled brown she-cat

Crowfrost- black-and-white tom

Ratscar- brown tom with long scar across his back

Snowbird- pure white she-cat

Apprentice, Ravenpaw

Tawnypelt- tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

Olivenose- tortoiseshell she-cat

Owlclaw- light brown tabby tom

Shrewfoot- gray she-cat with black feet

Scorchfur- dark gray tom

Tigerheart- dark brown tabby tom

Dawnpelt- cream-furred she-cat

Pinenose- black she-cat

Apprentice, Sparrowpaw

Ferretclaw- cream-and-gray tom

Apprentice, Dewpaw

Starlingwing- ginger tom

Apprentice, Mistpaw

Kinkfur- tabby she-cat with long fur that sticks out at all angles

Ivytail- black, white, and tortoiseshell she-cat

**Apprentices:**

Sparrowpaw- large brown tabby tom

Dewpaw- gray she-cat

Mistpaw- pale gray she-cat

Ravenpaw- small black tom

Fieldpaw- tortoiseshell she-cat with yellow eyes

**Queens: **None

**Elders:**

Cedarheart- dark gray tom

Tallpoppy- long-legged light brown tabby she-cat

Snaketail- dark brown tom with tabby-striped tail

Whitewater- white she-cat with long fur, blind in one eye

**WindClan**

**Leader: **Onestar- brown tabby tom

**Deputy: **Ashfoot- gray she-cat

**Medicine Cat: **Kestrelflight- mottled gray tom

**Warriors:**

Crowfeather- dark gray tom

Owlwhisker- light brown tabby tom

Whitetail- small white she-cat

Nightcloud- black she-cat

Gorsetail- very pale gray-and-white tom with blue eyes

Weaselfur- ginger tom with white paws

Harespring- brown-and-white tom

Leaftail- dark tabby tom, amber eyes

Emberfoot- gray tom with two dark paws

Breezepelt- black tom with amber eyes

Sedgewhisker- light brown tabby she-cat

Swallowtail- dark gray she-cat

Sunstrike- tortoiseshell she-cat with large white mark on her forehead

Furzepelt- gray-and-white she-cat

Boulderfur- large pale gray tom

Whiskernose- light brown tom

**Apprentices: **None

**Queens:**

Heathertail- light brown tabby she-cat with blue eyes, mother of Breezepelt's kits: Swiftkit (black-and-white she-kit) and Petalkit (light brown she-kit with white patches)

**Elders:**

Webfoot- dark gray tabby tom

Tornear- tabby tom

**RiverClan**

**Leader: **Mistystar- gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Deputy: **Reedwhisker- black tom

**Medicine Cat: **Mothwing- dappled golden she-cat

Apprentice, Willowshine

**Warriors:**

Graymist- pale gray tabby she-cat

Mintfur- light gray tabby tom

Icewing- white she-cat with blue eyes

Minnowtail- dark gray she-cat

Pebblefoot- mottled gray tom

Mallownose- light brown tabby tom

Robinwing- tortoiseshell-and-white tom

Apprentice, Fawnpaw

Petalfur- gray-and-white she-cat

Grasspelt- light brown tom

Hollowflight- dark brown tabby tom

Troutstream- pale gray tabby she-cat

Mossyfoot- brown-and-white she-cat

Rushtail- light brown tabby tom

Duskfur- brown tabby she-cat

**Apprentices:**

Willowshine- gray tabby she-cat

Fawnpaw- pale brown tabby she-cat

**Queens:**

Mosspelt- tortoiseshell she-cat with blue eyes, mother of Mintfur's kits: Eveningkit (small dark gray she-kit), Brightkit (tortoiseshell she-kit with green eyes), and Bluekit (blue gray tom)

**Elders:**

Dapplenose- mottled gray she-cat

Pouncetail- ginger-and-white tom

**Cats Outside the Clans**

Smoky- muscular gray-and-white tom who lives in a barn at the horseplace

Floss- small gray-and-white she-cat who lives at the horseplace

**Other Animals**

Midnight- a star-gazing badger who lives by the sea


	2. Prologue

_Author's Note: This is a lot longer than I expected it to be, as it is merely a prologue. Originally it was much shorter and simpler, but then I got some more ideas and ran with them. Anyways, it doesn't appear nearly as long on here, at least. This prologue is set back in the original territories long ago at some point between SkyClan being there and the original series and Bluestar's Prophecy and such so yeah, the four cats in here were just made up. Some stuff in here may be confusing but it'll be explained later for the most part. A lot, lot later._

It was a dark, silent night in the territories of the four clans, as most living creatures were safely tucked away in comfort to sleep. The sky was relatively clear and the weather quite calm as it was the end of newleaf. The moon sat bright in the sky, accompanied by an array of glittering silver stars that were able to observe all that went on below them. Serenity was spread out over the silence like a soft layer of frost.

"Thornfang!" a friendly voice called out, cutting through the thick silence. The owner of this voice, a white-and-gray she-cat, came bounding from WindClan territory eagerly. Her blue eyes shone nearly as bright as those of a StarClan warrior.

The tom she was bounding towards, a rather old brown tabby tom with amber eyes and a mangy pelt, gazed irritably at her as she came to a stop in front of him. "Are you trying to wake up the whole forest?" he snapped harshly.

Haretail smiled, ignoring his remark. "It's been a while since I've seen you," she mewed cheerfully. "I suppose you know what this is about?"

"No, I don't, but I'd really like to so I can understand why Darkpelt insisted that we get up and go to Fourtrees to meet him in the middle of the night. Of all the nerve! Isn't it enough when we go to Highstones at half moon and the Gathering at full moon?" Thornfang grumbled bitterly.

"I certainly think so," said a new voice. The cats turned to see the RiverClan medicine cat padding toward them, her sleek golden spotted pelt illuminated by the moonlight. "Greetings Haretail, Thornfang," she mewed coldly, dipping her head to the WindClan and ThunderClan medicine cats in turn.

"Hello, Spottedfrost," Haretail greeted her warmly. "You're doing well, I hope?"

"Well, I'm up in the middle of night because of a ShadowClan cat's whims, so what do you think?" Spottedfrost responded steely. "I'd ask either of you but I'm not in the mood for some happy little run off of everything you're loving right now or an annoying, rambling complaint about each and every thing in life. So I think we should just get to Fourtrees and see what this is all about."

And with that the three medicine cats walked the last little ways to Fourtrees, Spottedfrost leading with a graceful, proud gait. When the three got there they could see the ShadowClan medicine cat, a small black tom with nervous yellow eyes, awaiting them.

"Oh, you're all here, good," Darkpelt meowed happily as he saw them arrive. He scurried over to them quickly after glancing left and right as if to check for any threats. "I hope your clans are doing-"

"Oh, shut up and just cut to the chase, it's late and I'm in no mood for your nonsense," Spottedfrost interrupted abruptly.

"You don't need to yell at everyone tonight," Haretail scolded her lightly. Turning to Darkpelt she mewed kindly, "I'd love to chat, but it's much too late at night and we're all tired so if you could please just tell us why you asked us to come out here that would be nice."

Darkpelt nodded. "Yes, well, you know how we discovered that one prophecy that StarClan didn't seem to know about? The one that talked about a few cats that could save the clans?" The others nodded and the tom continued, looking at the floor nervously. "Well, I ended up going back to where we heard it the other day in my dreams, and I felt like there was something there… Not a someone really, you know, but more like a something… And, well… I had a feeling that there was something strange going on there. So I went to where we heard the first prophecy that one time and I waited, and heard it again after a little while. But somehow I felt as if there some more to it, so I waited for a while longer, and the feeling that something was there with me that I couldn't see built and built, until suddenly I could hear a hissing voice telling a prophecy. Not the same one as before, but something different…"

"What was it?" Thornfang asked, trying not to seem too curious.

"_Out of the darkness of those forgotten, four cats shall be born of ancient powers, and their evil will consume all that warriors have known…_" Darkpelt recited gravely.

"I thought the other prophecy said that the four with powers were going to save the clans though," Haretail exclaimed fearfully, her tail twitching anxiously.

"It does," Darkpelt replied. "Maybe this is another prophecy that could come true. Or maybe these aren't the same cats or something. I don't know, they're connected somehow I guess, but…"

"How do we even know that you actually heard this?" Spottedfrost demanded, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "I bet you're just making this up. Or you imagined that you heard it."

"Yeah, and what is it talking about, a darkness of those forgotten?" Thornfang growled disbelievingly.

"I really did hear it! This prophecy is real!" Darkpelt protested indignantly. "I'm not really sure what it all means, but if StarClan isn't aware of it then it must be something serious." He blinked, his eyes wide with fear and uncertainty.

Haretail shuddered. "I believe you, Darkpelt, no matter what they say," she informed the small tom. Darkpelt smiled at her appreciatively, then suddenly frowned and began to shiver.

"What is it now?" Spottedfrost hissed in annoyance as she glared at the fearful medicine cat. "Did you hear something else that isn't real?"

Darkpelt shifted his paws uncertainly. "It's that sensation again. Of something there, watching us…" To this Spottedfrost snorted disbelievingly and opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it as a violent chill came over the cats. Within moments they could all feel that sensation of being watched growing and growing, seeming to fill their minds and leave no room for anything else but terrified, panicked thoughts.

Darkpelt let out a horrified shriek as something leaped out of the darkness on top of him. Looking up, he peered at the faceless, misty form of a cat. It was nearly as dark as the night sky and had a spirit-like appearance about it. At first glance it seemed as if a paw could go straight through it, however in reality the creature was definitely solid and extremely strong. So close to it the ShadowClan medicine cat was able to hear whispers and hisses too faint to comprehend that seemed to be a part of the dark figure itself.

Three more of these strange spirits appeared, each one facing one of the other medicine cats. For a moment they remained motionless, their bodies taut and ready to spring. Thornfang and Spottedfrost glared at each of theirs as Haretail stared at hers in shock. Darkpelt struggled weakly against his own, which did nothing but keep him pressed to the ground. And then a chilling hiss that seemed to come from nowhere rang through the air. _Kill._

Instantly the spirit cats were set in motion and they pounced on the medicine cats, their claws and teeth ripping at flesh fiercely. Darkpelt struggled under the weight of the one and finally managed to shove him off before the misty figure could sink his teeth, which were set in a murky mouth that disappeared when closed, into the black tom's neck. As he stood, shaking with fear, he turned to confront the savage creature who came jumping at him with his claws extended.

Just like Darkpelt, Spottedfrost and Haretail had no true fighting experience and were forced to rely purely on instinct, slashing at the spirits wildly. Thornfang had trained as a warrior before a serious injury had caused him to pick up medicine cat duties for a couple of moons and had begun to apprentice in that instead after a sign from StarClan. Now he put those long dormant skills to the test as he carefully took on his opponent, landing and dodging blows with some expertise. At last he managed to dig his claws into the figure's throat and it disappeared, leaving him to assist his fellow medicine cats, who were having little success.

Just as Haretail managed to dispatch hers thanks to help from Thornfang, several more of them appeared, surrounding the living cats. Thornfang glanced at Haretail, whose eyes had widened with horror at the sight of the new arrivals. He rested his tail on her shoulder reassuringly for a moment, and mewed, "Stick close to me, alright?" The WindClan she-cat nodded swiftly and kept with the ThunderClan tom as they were assailed by several spirits.

As the fighting resumed, the clan cats fought with desperation, aware that they were battling for their own survival. They did not know what their enemies were, but they knew that they could surely kill them or be killed by them. This was quite clear all too soon as a single scream hit the air and was followed by a harsh cracking sound. Turning, Spottedfrost saw Darkpelt lying motionless on the ground, a spirit removing his teeth from the tom's neck. The ShadowClan medicine cat was dead, and within moments his body seemed to disappear like those of the spirits.

The battle intensified. By now all three of the remaining cats were miserably injured. The worst wound was worn by Haretail, whose left back leg had been practically torn apart by a figure that had been dealt with by Thornfang. But the wound remained, and the she-cat found herself having trouble moving, and her dependency on Thornfang was becoming greater. The ThunderClan tom knew that they would not last much longer, especially seeing as he kept having to rescue Haretail. Looking over at Spottedfrost he could see that she was having trouble on her own now too. Gazing at the spirits surrounding them he made a split decision. Racing over to where Spottedfrost was struggling with a spirit on top of her he grabbed the creature with his teeth and flung him over towards a large group of others. Running towards them he found that they were rapidly swarming him, and yelled to Haretail and Spottedfrost, "RUN!" as he fought the horde of figures to his last breath.

At Thornfang's mew the she-cats did not hesitate, quickly overcoming their present opponents and fleeing together. After finishing Thornfang, all of the spirits began to pursue them, seeming to be nearly as fast as they were strong. Muscles burning, the medicine cats ran their hardest but quickly started running out of energy. Glancing over her shoulder, Spottedfrost realized that the figures had merged into a single mass of darkness that was advancing toward them at an alarming rate.

Something similar appeared in front of them all of a sudden, but it was considerably smaller and seemed to be of light rather than darkness. Too fast to stop, the she-cats crashed into it and found themselves running along a strange, colorless forest, made up of blank, white trees and grass. The mass of light was gone but the mass of darkness seemed to still be behind them, chasing them. So they continued onward, exhaustion creeping up on them swiftly.

The mass of darkness now appeared to be growing smaller, perhaps weakened by the forest somehow. But Haretail was lagging, her injured leg failing her. Spottedfrost slowed to keep with her, and stared into the she-cat's despairing eyes.

"Hold on, we're almost safe," the spotted she-cat meowed urgently. But Haretail shook her head, gritting her teeth with pain.

"I can't, you go on," she replied weakly, gritting her teeth in pain as she came to a stop, unable to run any farther.

Spottedfrost glanced back at the mass of darkness, then at the WindClan medicine cat before she turned and forced her tired legs to carry her farther. She went as fast as she could, and forced herself not to look back as she heard Haretail gasp when the darkness reached her. As the RiverClan medicine cat began to wonder how much farther she could possibly go, she looked back to see that the darkness was gone. Halting, she sat down, panting and feeling as if her whole body was broken.

And then a low hiss filled the strange forest, reciting the prophecy that was unknown by all but a medicine cat that was trapped alone. _Out of the darkness of those forgotten, four cats shall be born of ancient powers, and their evil will consume all that warriors have known…_


	3. Chapter 1

Snowkit opened his amber eyes to the lazy scene of the ThunderClan nursery. The white tom was curled up next to his mother, Brightheart, along with his siblings, Dewkit and Amberkit. The only other queen at the time, Cinderheart, lay asleep in her own nest with her young kits, Sunkit and Sootkit. It was approaching sunhigh, and warm rays of light poured into the area, gently nudging the sleeping queens and kits awake. As Amberkit and Dewkit began to stir, Snowkit glanced over at them, and a sudden realization came to him.

_We're six moons old today! We'll be apprentices!, _he thought excitedly, quickly standing up and nudging his mother. "Come on! It's our ceremony today!" he exclaimed impatiently, shaking restlessly as he waited for his mother and siblings to get up.

As Brightheart began to slowly awaken, Dewkit sat up, turning and looking at Snowkit sleepily. "The clan isn't going anywhere, you know," he remarked coldly, shaking out his gray pelt, which was ruffled from sleep.

Snowkit paid his brother no mind and looked around the nursery. Feeling too full of energy to wait for them all to finally get up, the kit raced out into the camp, feeling the sunshine warm his damp white pelt. It was one of the last few sunny days of leaf-fall that was likely left before the weather turned rainy and dull. His paws pounded across the hollow floor, causing an excessive clamor as he came to a halt outside of the elders' den.

"I should have known it was the loudest kit in the nursery," Dustpelt grumbled as he stuck his head out of the den and spotted Snowkit, his whiskers twitching with annoyance. "Somehow I always seem to hear you, no matter how good of a dream I'm having."

"I'm six moons old today," Snowkit mewed simply. "I'll get to hunt and fight and everything now."

"And care for us elders," came a new voice as Sandstorm appeared at the entrance, peering down at the white tom, her sharp green eyes unreadable. "I'm sure Dustpelt will enjoy having you around."

"Not me," Snowkit replied confidently as Dustpelt glared at the ginger she-cat. "Amberkit and Dewkit can take care of that. _I_'_ll_ be too busy fighting off trespassers."

Suddenly Brightheart came up and cuffed the kit around the ear, causing him to let out a wail of protest. "That's what you get for running off," his mother scolded him. "You won't get to be an apprentice if you don't learn to behave. Now come here and let me groom you; your pelt is all rumpled and your ceremony is almost here."

Snowkit tried to get away but the white she-cat pulled him close to her and began to wash his fur with firm strokes of her tongue. He continued to wriggle for a few moments before giving in and waiting, irritated, until at last she was satisfied that he was ready. Scrambling away he joined Amberkit and Dewkit beneath the Highledge. Bramblestar was already climbing the rocks to address the clan.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Highledge for a clan meeting," the ThunderClan leader meowed, his voice carrying strongly around the hollow. The clan cats began to stop what they were doing and gather, several of them whispering to each other; most likely wondering what cats were to be the mentors of the three kits.

"Do you think our mentors will be nice?" Amberkit asked her brothers nervously, eyes wide. "I hope we don't get anyone too harsh. I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint mine. I probably won't be able to catch prey at all. Or fight. I'll probably just fail…"

"You'll be fine," Snowkit told her absently, gazing out across the assembled cats proudly.

"Yeah, stop worrying, furball," Dewkit put in. "Even if you fail, you could always be the medicine cat apprentice." After glancing over at the ThunderClan medicine cat, Jayfeather, a grouchy gray tabby, Amberkit's eyes widened.

There was no time for anymore of Amberkit's fretting, however, as Bramblestar indicated for Snowkit to step forward. His heart full of joy, the kit walked out to where all of ThunderClan could see him, and Bramblestar spoke the traditional words, "Snowkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Snowpaw. Your mentor will be Toadstep. I hope Toadstep will pass down all he knows to you."

The black-and-white tom padded up to Snowkit, and Bramblestar continued. "Toadstep, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Cloudtail, and you have shown yourself to be agile and loyal. You will be the mentor of Snowpaw, and I expect you to pass down all you know to Snowpaw." The warrior and new apprentice touched noses briefly before heading back to where the rest of the clan had gathered.

Smiling cheerfully, Snowpaw joined his parents, who he was glad to see had pride in their eyes for their kits. Settling down, he watched as Dewkit was apprenticed to Blossomfall and Amberkit was apprenticed to Bumblestripe, and the two newly made apprentices joined their family.

As the ceremony ended and the cats began to return to their duties, Snowpaw felt happy knowing that he was now an apprentice. "What now?" he asked Cloudtail curiously.

His father purred affectionately as he saw how enthusiastic the white tom was. "Your mentors will take you out to show you the territory," he mewed.

"Do well and make sure to listen to your mentors," Brightheart reminded them softly before she and Cloudtail padded off to go see what patrols Squirrelflight had organized for the day. Toadstep, Blossomfall, and Bumblestripe took their place shortly.

"You'll be seeing some of the territory today, mostly the borders," Blossomfall told them. "Follow us and ask a few questions if you'd like, though we'll tell you everything you need to know."

Snowpaw and his siblings padded after the three warriors as they left the camp through the thorn tunnel and headed north along the Old Thunderpath. Bumblestripe told them that they were going to show them the abandoned twoleg nest first and then work their way around. Looking around, Snowpaw was in awe at how large their territory was, and couldn't seem to see enough. He stared at the tall trees with their gold, red, and orange leaves and at the thick, soft undergrowth beneath his paws, wondering how the territories of the other clans could ever compare to all of this.

They arrived shortly at the abandoned twoleg nest, which looked rather strange to the apprentices, causing Dewpaw to comment, "I don't see how anything could ever live in something like that." The place was of a decent size and made of rotting wood.

"Twolegs are weird," Toadstep replied. "One time when there was a really bad sickness, a lot of our clan had to stay here to keep the others like me healthy. Rosepetal said it wasn't too bad."

"I think I'll stick to moss," Snowpaw mewed, knowing that he could never sleep in a place like that. It was too foreign.

"Twoleg nests aren't all bad," Blossomfall replied, seeming amused by the apprentices' attitude toward the structure. "Lots of herbs grow around here, and you can oftentimes find prey too. Mice tend to like these places."

At the mention of mice, Snowpaw's ears perked up. "Can we try to catch some?" he asked hopefully, longing to have a chance to actually do something.

Blossomfall shook her head. "We'd best be moving on."

Feeling a little disappointed, Snowpaw followed the others as they continued onward. Soon Toadstep announced that they had arrived at the ShadowClan border. Padding up to it, Snowpaw could smell the scent markers of both ThunderClan and ShadowClan, and beyond that he saw a thick forest of pine trees.

"We've been having some trouble with them lately," Blossomfall growled. "The mange-pelts seem to think that they can try to take some territory from us to get them through the upcoming leafbare."

"Well, they've got another thing coming if they try," Toadstep meowed with confidence. Snowpaw grinned, glad that the tom was his mentor and knowing that ShadowClan couldn't stand any chance against ThunderClan. Afterall, their former leader, Firestar, had been a renowned hero, and they had three cats that had once held the powers of the stars in their paws. Obviously they were blessed by StarClan!

The mentors and their apprentices all left scent markers just to ensure that ShadowClan knew that ThunderClan wasn't afraid to defend its territory. Heading along the border, the lake was soon in sight. As they came up to the shore, Snowpaw stared across the large expanse of water sparkling in the sun, seeing the marshes of RiverClan and moors of WindClan from a distance.

"The lake dried up once," Toadstep told them. "But cats from each clan went on a quest and stopped the things that were stealing the water."

"Graystripe told us that story," Amberpaw said. "Those cats must have been very brave to leave their clans."

Toadstep nodded and the group continued on, pausing for a moment at the Sky Oak, an enormous oak tree, before continuing. They passed by their border with WindClan, who they had no quarrel with presently, and began heading back to camp, when Amberpaw suddenly let out a squeal.

Snowpaw froze, trying to spot his sister. "Amberpaw?" he called out, before he saw the others rushing to where the gray-and-white she-cat was caught in a bramble bush. Scurrying over there, the white tom gazed at his sister with concern.

"What happened?" Bumblestripe asked his apprentice.

"I…I was watching a butterfly and wasn't paying attention to where I was going and tripped over a rock into this," the apprentice told them, looking down at the ground out of embarrassment.

Snowpaw could see Dewpaw rolling his eyes, clearly annoyed at his sister's idiotic mistake. Personally the white tom felt similarly, wondering if Amberpaw was going to disappoint her mentor as she had feared after all, but knew that she needed help.

"I'll try to pull you out," he offered, padding up to her. The apprentice's eyes were full of gratitude for her brother as he took a look at how the back end of her was stuck. He clawed at the brambles, cutting away those that he could, and then placed his paws on her pelt. Putting pressure on her he began to summon up his strength and began to attempt to pull her out as she wriggled to try and loosen herself more for him.

Bumblestripe went to the other side of her and assisted him, seemingly feeling the need to take responsibility for his apprentice. At last they managed to pull her free of the bush, though several clumps of her fur remained. Obviously ashamed, Amberpaw quickly thanked both of the toms before they began to head back to camp.

Seeing that Amberpaw looked depressed and was probably worrying that she was going to be the worst apprentice that ThunderClan had ever had, Snowpaw decided to cheer her up. "How about we race back to camp?" he suggested.

Amberpaw brightened at the idea. "Sure," she mewed, and looked at Dewpaw. "Race with us?"

Dewpaw twitched his whiskers disdainfully. "You two go ahead and tire yourselves out."

"Ready?" Snowpaw asked his sister, ignoring Dewpaw. After Amberpaw nodded, he took off with her following close behind. For a while he remained in the lead, but Amberpaw was smaller and more agile and soon overtook him, maintaining a short lead. As the camp came to be within sight, Snowpaw pushed himself harder, trying to get ahead of her. As they raced through the thorn tunnel, he made one last attempt, gaining speed and then making a great leap. As he landed just a little bit shy of beating her, a crack of thunder resounded in the area.

"You win," he mewed to Amberpaw, panting heavily. As the two of them cooled down, Snowpaw heard Molefoot remark nearby, "Must be a storm coming." Reminded of the thunder, the apprentice frowned, looking up at the sky. It was bright blue and perfectly clear, without a cloud in sight…


	4. Chapter 2

The sun sat high in the sky, spreading its warmth and light across the ground below, causing the water of RiverClan's two streams to glimmer. Most of the cats in the camp were likely to be sunbathing in preparation for the dull weather ahead. For those with duties still to do, however, the heat was more of a nuisance than a pleasure, really, as it made the most routine of tasks even more unbearable.

Fawnpaw had already had many chances that day to experience this. Being RiverClan's only apprentice at the moment, the brown tabby was charged with all of the tasks involving the elders. She had quickly learned that while picking ticks off of old cats and changing their bedding was terribly irritating any day, it was even worse on an unusually hot leaf-fall day when the elders' den felt terribly stuffy and all you wanted to do was go for a swim and cool off. But, of course, when she had finally finished with all of that and been ready to fulfill her desire, she had discovered herself to be assigned to a border patrol.

Now, the apprentice suffered in silence as the patrol headed toward the ShadowClan border. Besides Fawnpaw it was made of Fawnpaw's mentor, Robinwing, her father, Mallownose, and Graymist, a senior warrior. She wondered why she was even really necessary. The three warriors could surely handle a border alone, and despite the presence of both her mentor and her father, she was ignored anyway.

When Fawnpaw was born, she had had two brothers: Mudkit and Stonekit. At the time, a terrible sickness had been sweeping through the clan, and the two toms were only a few days old when the sickness struck them. They were too young and weak to fight it off, and both had died shortly. Their parents, Duskfur and Mallownose, had grieved for a long while over the two kits. While Fawnpaw had survived, her parents had been more focused on the loss of the two kits than the survival of the one. Mallownose had not come to visit her very often, and while Duskfur had taken care of her daughter, she always seemed to be elsewhere, not able to really focus on Fawnpaw without being reminded of the sons she had lost.

The deaths of her brothers had continued to haunt Fawnpaw as she grew up. Cats came into the nursery to check on other kits that were much younger than her and didn't ever ask her to play. So she had been lonesome without a sibling to make mischief with. After becoming an apprentice she found that cats rarely spoke to her, and her mentor often forgot about training her. And when they were training, he didn't pay much attention to her at all. No cat asked her to share a fish with them or to be on their patrol. The elders didn't care to speak to her unless she had done something wrong, like forgetting to get out a thorn from their bedding. She didn't feel as if she was accepted in RiverClan, as if she was a part of it. She felt like an outsider.

Sighing, Fawnpaw trailed after the three warriors across the marshes, feeling melancholy. The ShadowClan border was in sight. Twolegs swarmed the area in greenleaf, which the heat that day made it feel like it was, but really the twolegs were long gone from the area now. As they came closer, she scented ShadowClan cats nearby. Sure enough, as soon as they came up to the border, they were able to spot a patrol. Fawnpaw narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Tensions between the two clans had been rising in the past moon or so. ShadowClan had started the whole thing by claiming that RiverClan scent had been found on ShadowClan territory at a Gathering. Mistystar had denied it, of course, but Blackstar had seemed set upon the idea. A short time later, the ShadowClan border had seemed to be slightly within RiverClan territory. A ShadowClan patrol had denied the accusation and instead said that RiverClan cats were the ones who had messed up the border markers. This had led to a short skirmish, in which neither side had really been victorious, but instead both patrols had simply not been up for a real battle at the time.

Since the skirmish, however, the border had been somewhat fuzzy, and both sides seemed to be constantly pushing the border a little bit further into the other one's territory. If ShadowClan didn't back down soon, Mistystar would likely decide to have a real battle and make clear to the fox-hearts that they couldn't mess with RiverClan like that.

Fawnpaw stared at the ShadowClan cats, trying to recognize them if she could. _The tortoiseshell she-cat might be Tawnypelt_, she thought. _The ginger tom is Starlingwing. I'm not sure who the gray tom is, or that apprentice. I think I saw him at a Gathering once though._

"They're probably going to accuse us of something else now, the fish-brains. We should just rip their pelts off already," Robinwing muttered, lashing his tail as he glared at the patrol.

"We don't need to fight anyone here," Graymist chastised the younger warrior. "Keep your wits about you. If anyone provokes a battle here, it's going to be them, not us."

The gray ShadowClan tom padded forward. "Have you come to steal more of our prey?" he snarled, his fellow warriors staring angrily at the other patrol.

_How dare they!_ Fawnpaw thought, her pelt bristling with shock and anger at ShadowClan's nerve. Robinwing and Mallownose appeared just as infuriated by the gray tom's claim. Graymist remained composed, though it was obvious that she too was startled as she growled, "What kind of proof do you have to accuse us of stealing your prey?"

"You've been setting your markers into ShadowClan territory," the gray tom meowed fiercely. "Now, RiverClan scent is all over our territory here at the border, and we found several pieces of half eaten prey that cats not a part of ShadowClan had killed! Your clan is responsible!"

"We aren't the ones setting our markers into another clan's territory. We're just setting them back to where they were before you wrongfully set them," Graymist told him angrily. "As for the prey you found dead, RiverClan has no need or interest in eating any of the crowfood that you hunt to put on your fresh-kill pile. We haven't set a paw into your territory. Perhaps it was a passing rogue."

"It was no rogue," Starlingwing hissed, stepping forward. "RiverClan is full of liars."

"You're the liar, saying that!" Robinwing protested, coming up until he stood eye to eye with the ShadowClan tom, his claws unsheathed and his fur fluffed up with rage.

"You better back off before I rip your face off," Starlingwing growled, his eyes full of hatred for the RiverClan cats.

"I'd like to see you try, fleabag," Robinwing spat.

The patrols had begun to square off to form pairs of opponents. Starlingwing and Robinwing continued to face each other, neither tom wanting to back down, while Graymist and the gray tom were glaring at each other and the apprentice had turned a challenging stare onto Fawnpaw. She stared back coldly, ready to jump into battle as soon as the first move was made. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Mallownose had decided to face off against Tawnypelt, but the she-cat looked troubled.

"Stop it!" the tortoiseshell she-cat snapped, glaring at the rest of her patrol. "It's a hot day and our patrols look pretty evenly matched. A battle isn't going to solve anything here."

"It could solve the issue of ShadowClan wrongly accusing RiverClan all of the time," Robinwing growled, but Graymist shot a glare at the warrior.

"She's right, fighting here won't help anyone. We're all just getting too angry because of the heat," the gray she-cat mewed. "Let's just set the markers and head back to camp."

Fawnpaw felt a little disappointed as Graymist ended any chance of a battle, as Robinwing and Mallownose probably did as well, but none of them argued. The apprentice knew that the senior warrior was probably right, and that it would just be another pointless little skirmish. If they were to truly get the message to ShadowClan, they would have to do it with a planned, sensible battle. Preferably on a normal, cool leaf-fall day.

Both patrols then proceeded to set their markers while keeping their suspicious gazes on each other. After they had finished, the RiverClan cats turned tail and began to head back to camp, quite disgruntled.

"Mistystar is going to want to hear about this," Mallownose murmured.

"I'm sure she won't be pleased with Blackstar," Graymist replied with a nod.

Fawnpaw padded after them, remaining quiet. She realized that they had come extremely close to a real fight with ShadowClan. If Tawnypelt hadn't spoken up, she would probably be raking her claws down that apprentice's side that very moment. Now, she would never know who the victor might have been.

_He was pretty large, _she recalled. _He might have been pretty strong. Though I don't think he was the brightest._

Suddenly, she stumbled over a root and hit the ground. Feeling startled, she remained motionless for a moment before standing back up and looking over at the three warriors. She felt depressed as she realized that none of them had noticed her fall. They weren't paying attention, just continuing along without her…

With a sigh, the brown she-cat headed after them sullenly. As they reached a stream separating them from the camp, the warriors quickly swam across it with ease. Watching them from a couple of fox-lengths back, the apprentice smiled.

Fawnpaw had always been an excellent swimmer. She had always felt so free in the water, and was able to swim very quickly with ease. If it wasn't for this, she may have imagined that she wasn't really a RiverClan cat at all and she had been some random kit that Duskfur found in the woods or something, and that was why they had only ever really cared for her dead brothers. But she could swim, and very well at that. Indeed, cats actually paid attention to her when she swam. They would even praise her for how good she was, in fact, Robinwing said that she might just be the best swimmer in RiverClan. Fawnpaw felt extremely proud at the idea.

_Still,_ she thought, padding up to the stream and peering down at her reflection in the water, _being the best swimmer in RiverClan isn't the same as being accepted. It isn't the same as having two brothers that didn't die and parents who actually pay attention to you and clanmates who talk to you and treat you like one of them…_

She felt more at home here, by the stream alone, than in the camp with her clan. She felt as if the water was closer to her than her parents.


	5. Chapter 3

"You'll never destroy the clans, Dark Forest warrior! WindClan will never let you win!" Swiftkit squealed fiercely, throwing herself at her sister, Petalkit. The two kits tussled on the ground for a few moments before Petalkit pulled herself away from her sister.

"You don't stand a chance. I've already died once, and now it's your turn to try it!" the brown she-kit cried. "Not even StarClan can save you!"

"Go back to your darkness!" Swiftkit meowed, trying to sound heroic. She pounced on her sister once more and nipped her neck lightly.

"Ahhh, no, it can't be, I'm dying!" Petalkit yowled, trying to suppress a mrrow of laughter as she thrashed dramatically and slowly grew still, closing her eyes. The she-kit remained silent for a few moments, pretending to be dead, before leaping up, eyes shining. "Let's play a new game!"

"Ok," Swiftkit replied eagerly. "You can be a fox and I'll be a WindClan warrior!"

"Why do I always have to be the bad one?" Petalkit complained, pouting.

"You're the best at fake dramatic deaths," Swiftkit squeaked brightly.

"I suppose that's true," Petalkit mewed with a grin. "Still, I wanna be the warrior."

"Fine," Swiftkit agreed. "I'm gonna be a super huge fox then though!"

"And I'll be a super awesome warrior!" Petalkit countered, lowering herself into what she thought was a battle position. Swiftkit fluffed out her tail, lowered herself down to look like a fox, and growled at the "WindClan warrior", narrowing her eyes. Then Petalkit sprang, knocking the black-and-white she-kit to the nursery floor. The two began to swipe at each other but stopped when they heard their mother yawn.

"Do you have to play so loud?" Heathertail sighed, looking down sleepily at her daughters.

Swiftkit sat up and peered up at the brown tabby. "Sorry!" she squeaked.

"We didn't mean to wake you," Petalkit added apologetically.

"Oh, it's fine, I suppose kits will be kits," the queen muttered. "I am a bit tired though, so I guess it's alright if you go out and play in the camp, so long as you don't go out into the territory or bother any of the cats who have things to do. Understand?"

Swiftkit nodded quickly along with her sister. They were going to go out into the camp! They had rarely been allowed to venture beyond the nursery before.

"Let's race!" Petalkit suggested cheerfully.

"Ok. Where to?" Swiftkit asked.

Petalkit looked out of the nursery entrance for a moment thoughtfully. "We'll go from here to the medicine cat's den," she decided.

Peering out to the camp, Swiftkit asked, "Where's that?"

"It's that rock crevice," Petalkit replied knowledgably, pointing to it for a moment with her paw.

Swiftkit nodded, and the two kits took off, racing out of the gorse bush that contained the nursery and into the wide, open WindClan camp. With several cats around the camp, Swiftkit found herself having to weave to and fro to keep out of their way. She pushed her little legs as much as she could, and within a couple moments found herself there. Sitting down, she glanced back to see that Petalkit was far behind.

"Wow," some cat nearby mewed. Swiftkit turned to see that Sedgewhisker, a WindClan warrior, had been watching them. To the black-and-white she-kit she remarked, "You might be the fastest cat in WindClan!"

"Really?" Swiftkit asked, feeling special all of a sudden. Sedgewhisker smiled and gave her a small nod before turning to look at something else. As she was thinking about this, the kit realized that her sister had reached her. Apparently she had heard Sedgewhisker's comment as she looked a little envious.

"Let's explore the camp or something," the white patched she-kit suggested a little less eagerly than usual. Swiftkit nodded, feeling awkward as she followed Petalkit closer to the medicine cat's den. Gazing inside, she saw a little rocky cavern with the medicine cat's nest. WindClan's medicine cat, Kestrelflight, appeared to be inside sorting herbs in a few cracks in the walls. There were a few piles of strange-looking plants lying at his paws.

Swiftkit turned away and saw her sister padding over to a tall boulder. _The Tallrock, _she remembered. _Soon maybe Petalkit and I will be there and Onestar will make us apprentices…_

"I wonder if we could climb it," Petalkit mewed, looking up at the giant rock with wonder.

Swiftkit padded up beside her and imagined doing so. "We could try I guess, though we're probably too little right now."

Petalkit stared up at it for a few moments before shaking her head and turning away. "I guess you're right. Maybe I'll get to go up there someday as Petalstar…"

Swiftkit gazed her sister thoughtfully, trying to imagine the kit as WindClan's leader. "It might be kind of fun to be leader," she mused. "Getting to tell cats what to do. You'd like that I guess. I'm not really into holding the clan on my shoulders though. I'd also be too scared of failing at climbing the Tallrock or something." She smiled lightheartedly.

"Good point," Petalkit purred. "I guess if a leader was really bad at climbing we'd have to start a new tradition. Or maybe StarClan would help them." Swiftkit let out a mrrow of laughter as she thought of a bunch of StarClan warriors trying to teach a scrawny little leader to climb.

The she-kit turned as she heard pawsteps. It must have been a hunting patrol returning to camp as the scent of fresh-kill was in the air. The two kits padded closer and watched the warriors come into the camp and deposit their catches on the fresh-kill pile. Swiftkit smiled as she saw that one of them was their father, Breezepelt, and headed toward him along with Petalkit.

Breezepelt's amber eyes glowed as he turned his gaze onto his daughters, who flung themselves onto their father happily. "Hello there, little ones," he purred affectionately. "Having fun out in the camp?"

"We've been exploring," Petalkit told him proudly.

"So we'll be ready when we're apprentices," Swiftkit added cheerfully.

"It won't be long now," their father promised them. "I can't believe you're almost six moons old! It feels like just yesterday I became a father and you two were tiny little furballs. Well, just make sure to enjoy your last days without having to get up early and train."

"But we want to start training!" Swiftkit protested. "There's only so many games to play."

"And stories to hear," Petalkit put in.

"Well, I'm not needed for anything right now, so how about I find a new game for you?" Breezepelt mewed. Both of his kits nodded, and the tom glanced around the camp. Having spotted something, he padded over to it with Swiftkit and Petalkit following close behind.

"Here," the warrior told them brightly, picking up a bird feather that had been lying near the nursery. "I'll drop this and both of you try to catch it as quick as you can."

Swiftkit blinked, wondering what kind of a game that was, but decided to give it a shot. She watched as Breezepelt sat down and opened his mouth, allowing the feather to fly out, carried on a small breeze. Keeping her eyes on the feather, the kit quickly moved after it. When the right moment came she leaped at it and caught the feather on her first try before Petalkit had a chance to make an attempt.

"Good job," Breezepelt praised her with a smile as he retrieved the feather to drop it again. Swiftkit grinned, though faintly noticed that Petalkit seemed a bit jealous.

Her first catch turned out to have been very lucky as she was never able to get it on her first try again. Each time she and Petalkit would have to jump at it several times before one of them was able to catch it in their jaws. Petalkit won two times after the first one, then Swiftkit won, then Petalkit won, and then Swiftkit won twice. The simple game had turned out to be fairly fun and challenging, and the two kits eagerly awaited the drop of the feather each time. After her recent win, however, Swiftkit saw that Breezepelt was not heading over to get the feather and drop it again.

He appeared to be staring angrily over at something. Following his gaze, the black-and-white kit saw a tom sitting a fair distance away watching the group. He was fairly old and had a somewhat mangy gray pelt. It took her a few moments to recall who he was. _Crowfeather. Breezepelt's father._

"Are you going to get the feather again?" Petalkit asked her father.

"Huh?" Breezepelt meowed, turning his attention back to his kits. "Oh, right, the feather…"

"Why is he watching us?" Swiftkit asked him curiously. "Do you think he wants to play with us?"

"Don't pay him any mind," Breezepelt told her sternly. "I didn't have the best relationship with him growing up and it got worse over time. I can only get along with him so well. There's no reason for either of you to think about any of this though, ok? Don't let him bother you." He sighed. "I'm done playing for now. I think you two ought to be getting back to the nursery. Take the feather with you and Heathertail can play with you."

Swiftkit felt rather bewildered at her father's sudden change of attitude as she picked up the feather and headed back to the nursery with Petalkit. They didn't say anything to each other along the way. Upon entering the nursery, Swiftkit felt rather downcast knowing that their time out in the camp was over already.

"You're back," their mother purred happily as she saw them pad inside. "I just woke up a few minutes ago. Did you have fun?"

Swiftkit nodded. "We explored for a while and then Breezepelt played a game with us."

"That's nice." Heathertail smiled.

"He got really weird when he saw his father watching us," Petalkit told her. "Do you know why?"

Heathertail frowned, sighing. "When Breezepelt was young, Crowfeather didn't really pay him much mind and ignored him, much different than your father treats you. He didn't have a very good relationship with Breezepelt's mother, Nightcloud, either. This led to terrible things in Breezepelt's life. I'm not sure you ought to know the whole story…"

"We're almost apprentices," Swiftkit reminded her.

"We can handle it," Petalkit mewed.

"Oh, alright then," Heathertail conceded. "You have a right to know I suppose. Anyways, as Breezepelt grew up, he was even more neglected by his father, and his parents also grew further apart. He also came to learn that his father had once been in love with the ThunderClan medicine cat at the time, Leafpool, and that three ThunderClan cats, Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf, were Crowfeather's kits with her. Breezepelt came to hate the three cats and believe that they should never have been born, and if Crowfeather had never loved Leafpool, he would have paid more attention to Nightcloud and Breezepelt.

"As he became very angry, Breezepelt began to be visited by a Dark Forest warrior in his dreams who convinced him to abandon his loyalty to WindClan and devote himself to the Dark Forest instead. So he became one of their recruits. When the final battle came, his anger at Crowfeather was so great that he felt that he had no choice but to fight for the Dark Forest. Eventually he and Crowfeater met in battle, and he confessed his reasons. His father told him some things, and Breezepelt became uncertain of his choice of the Dark Forest and fled.

"As he ran, he saw the Dark Forest cats tearing at the forest cats and began to realize the evil of it all. He came back to WindClan territory and saw me, nearly done in by a Dark Forest tom. He had had feelings for me for a while, and saved me, killing the Dark Forest tom. He later told me that seeing me there he realized both his love for me and his regret for choosing to fight for the Dark Forest. He realized that his father's rejection was not enough to waste his life over and instead fought for WindClan until the end of the battle after that. He forgave his father a little bit, though I don't think he will ever accept Crowfeather into his life again. For a while after the battle, most cats were unwilling to trust Breezepelt, but he managed to convince them that he was loyal to WindClan, and we became mates.

"Since then, Nightcloud and Crowfeather have officially separated as mates. Breezepelt has shown himself to be a very good warrior, and now he is more accepted in the clan than Crowfeather, who is seen as largely guilty for the wrongdoings of his son. His past ThunderClan romance also factors in some. He probably watches you now with guilt because Breezepelt is a much better father to you than Crowfeather ever even tried to be for him."

Swiftkit felt rather shocked as her mother finished the story. She had never imagined that her father would have been a cat who trained in the Dark Forest and betrayed his clan. Still, it seemed that he had been able to truly change, and that he also had good reason to be upset with Crowfeather.

"Alright," Heathertail mewed, yawning. "It's getting late. I think you two have had quite enough excitement for one day. Come and go to sleep." Swiftkit stepped into her mother's nest and curled up beside her. Petalkit did the same. Swiftkit's mind was full of thoughts, but the warmth of her mother and the comfort of the soft nest ensured that she quickly fell asleep.

_Author's Note: In this next chapter the last main point of view character will be introduced, and then the POVs will mostly be cycled through for the chapters after that, so we'll start getting into things such as the powers and stuff relating more to the main plot. And don't worry, it's going to start getting much more interesting and much darker as we go along here. :)_


	6. Chapter 4

It had been fairly warm and sunny earlier in the day, but recently a layer of clouds had crept in and stolen the sky. With them had come a gentle chill that set a rather somber mood for the remainder of the day. It was nearly dusk, and most cats were probably already finishing up their tasks for the day so they could curl up in their warm nests before the clouds broke the sky and let go of the shattered blue fragments that remained.

Ravenpaw had spent the warmer part of the day on a patrol, and had then started training with his mentor, Snowbird, as the cold rolled in. They had gone over battle training earlier, and were now focusing on hunting. Due to the weather most prey would probably be heading back to their dens, and would therefore be harder to find, but it had become dark enough now that stalking was even easier than usual in the shadowy pine forest. This would be especially true for Ravenpaw, who had a dark pelt.

"Demonstrate your stalking for me," Snowbird told her apprentice.

Ravenpaw nodded and complied, crouching low and moving stealthily across the forest floor. He made sure to go slowly and carefully, watching where he put his paws so that he wouldn't step on a twig and snap it or something of that sort.

"Very good," Snowbird mewed after watching the tom for several moments. "Let's see if you can catch something now."

The small tom sat up and paused, attempting to detect some sign of a critter nearby. After a couple of minutes he heard a croak coming from a fair distance. Turning in the direction that it had come from, he used his nose to help keep him going the right way as he crept forward quietly. Soon the culprit was in sight; a fat toad. The apprentice lowered himself into a stalking position and began to slither across the damp ground toward the toad. After he was close enough, he pounced on the creature, and the toad's croaking was over with one quick, clean bite.

"Well done," Snowbird purred, padding up to him. "You were so sneaky that I even lost track of you there for a moment or two."

A small smile appeared on Ravenpaw's face. "Thanks," he mewed graciously.

"Well, I suppose we ought to get back to camp now," Snowbird said happily. "You've already trained well enough today and it looks like it's going to rain soon. Let's get going."

Ravenpaw leaned down and picked up the toad before padding after the white she-cat. They arrived at the camp shortly, and Snowbird went off to talk to Tawnypelt nearby. Spotting his sister, Fieldpaw, the apprentice headed over to her.

"Hey," Ravenpaw greeted her after putting down the toad.

"Hello," the tortoiseshell she-cat mewed as she turned to look at her brother. She was the medicine cat apprentice, having expressed interest in herbs since she was a kit. Ravenpaw sometimes wished that she was training alongside of him, but knew that being a medicine cat was her calling. "How's your training going?"

"Fine. How about yours?" Ravenpaw asked.

"Fine as well," Fieldpaw replied with a smile. "I'm pretty sure I've got all of the herbs memorized."

"That's nice. Just wait for StarClan to send you a sign and you'll be all set," Ravenpaw joked. As this lighthearted mood faded, however, a frown crossed his face. Glancing around to make sure that no one was close enough to hear them, he told her quietly, "I think there is definitely something strange about me."

Fieldpaw appeared concerned. "Did you notice anything unusual today?"

"Nothing too weird, no," Ravenpaw sighed. "But still, Snowbird commented that she lost track of me for a couple of moments while I was getting this toad," he put his paw on it, "and she had been watching me the whole time. I know that I could just be very good at stalking, and it was dark and my pelt blends in well, but it just felt like it was all too…easy. I mean, the toad didn't even notice me until maybe a second before I had my teeth on its neck. I pounced and it probably could have had a chance to hop at least once, but it didn't. And when I was creeping along the ground, I just kind of felt like I was a part of the shadows…"

"Well, like you said, you might just be really good at stalking," Fieldpaw mewed thoughtfully. "And you could very well have imagined that one incident. But still, it does sound like there might be something different here..."

"Do you think StarClan might have an answer?" he asked hopefully.

"I suppose they probably would," she replied. "I promise I'll ask about it at the next half moon if I get the chance."

"Thank you," Ravenpaw told her gratefully. "I'm going to go bring this toad to the elders."

The black tom picked up the toad and padded off, still feeling uncertain. He knew that Fieldpaw was doing all that she could, but the next half moon was still a long time away. He supposed that he would have to wait and pray that StarClan had the answers he needed.

When he arrived at the elders' den, Cedarheart was asleep while Tallpoppy and Snaketail were discussing something. Noticing the apprentice's arrival out of her one good eye, Whitewater went over to greet him. "What a nice catch, Ravenpaw," she commented as he set the toad down at her paws. "I suppose you never know how hungry you are until you see a juicy piece of prey. Thank you." She bent down and bit into it.

"Either of you want some?" the white she-cat asked Tallpoppy and Snaketail, who both shook their heads before continuing their conversation, paying Ravenpaw and Whitewater no mind. The elder turned to the apprentice after that. "If you haven't eaten anything yet you might as well share it with me. I don't want to have to eat the whole thing by myself and I certainly would never waste good fresh-kill."

As he hadn't eaten yet, Ravenpaw took a bite of the toad, and found it quite tasty. After swallowing, he thought for a moment and then asked Whitewater, "Have there ever been any cats who were different than most?"

Whitewater turned her gaze onto the apprentice with interest for a moment as she chewed, apparently thinking. "Well," she mewed after a time. "Every cat is different from any other cat you might see in some way, but there have been those that have really stood out through being very great or very evil. Such as Brokenstar, Tigerstar, Firestar, and the like."

"Well, yes," Ravenpaw mewed. "But have there ever been any cats that could…do things that other cats could never do?"

"Of course," Whitewater replied. "The Three. Their story is one of the most recent ones and kits seem to enjoy the tale quite a bit, really. Didn't your mother ever tell you that one?" The elder appeared surprised as the apprentice shook his head. Pushing the rest of the toad over to him with her paw, she said, "Well then, eat the rest of this while I tell it to you. It's more of a story about the Great Battle, but the Three were a very important part of that."

Ravenpaw took another bite of the toad as the she-cat began. "Many seasons ago, the leader of ThunderClan, Firestar, was told of a prophecy: 'There will be three, kin of your kin, who will hold the powers of the stars in their paws.' Many moons later, Firestar's daughter, Squirrelflight, had three kits: Lionkit, Jaykit, and Hollykit. As Jaykit was blind, he became a medicine cat apprentice, and later found that he was not like other cats. He was able to walk in the dreams of other cats and sense what was going on in the minds of cats around him. It was by walking in a dream of Firestar's that he learned of the prophecy, and came to believe that it told of him and his littermates.

"Lionpaw came to find that he could never be defeated in battle, but Hollypaw did not find a power of her own. They grew up, becoming Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather. Eventually, they realized that another cat must be the one that the prophecy spoke of. It turned out that Dovepaw, the kit of Whitewing and Birchfall, was able to hear things from great distances. Now, the Three was complete, but faced with a great threat: the Dark Forest, a place that was the opposite of StarClan, and held the spirits of cats who had done terrible things in their lives and were not accepted by StarClan. These spirits turned out to have been plotting for a long time in order to get revenge upon the clans, to destroy them, and planned to do so with a great battle.

"By now, Dovepaw was Dovewing. The Three had been told of a fourth cat that would be needed to help the clans, and they came to find that it was Firestar, and the Three became the Four (though Firestar had no powers). They alerted Firestar to the upcoming battle, and then the Three came to a meeting of the leaders and used their powers to convince them of the threat. The leaders then told their clans of the danger and the four clans united against the coming force. StarClan spirits came and helped the clans against the evil as well. The battle was long and horrible, but at last the Dark Forest leader, Brokenstar, was killed, and the spirits began to retreat. Firestar faced the last great threat then, Tigerstar, his old foe, and killed him, losing his last life in the process. Many cats died in the struggle, but the clans stayed safe, and the Great Battle- as it is now called- was over. After that, having fulfilled their destinies, the Three found that their powers were no more, and resumed normal lives in ThunderClan. Peace was restored to the clans for a time."

Ravenpaw swallowed the last bite of the toad as Whitewater finished the story. "So the Three aren't different from other cats anymore?"

"Nope. Or at least as far as I know. Some think that ThunderClan is just keeping it all a secret so they can make use of their powers themselves."

Ravenpaw nodded. "Thanks for the story."

"Thank you for the toad," Whitewater responded with a smile. "Better head off to your nest now."

Ravenpaw padded out of the elders' den, his head swimming with thoughts after hearing Whitewater's tale. He wasn't sure whether to make a big deal about the things he had noticed or not. _It could just be nothing. But then again, it could be something. The Three supposedly don't have their powers anymore, which might mean that StarClan is looking to new cats…_


	7. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: Sorry about the lack of updates! My grandmother came and stayed with us for a few days in my room so I was a bit thrown off for a while. Rest assured that I am keeping with this story and will try and update once a day._

Fawnpaw bit into the small, juicy trout she had selected from the fresh-kill pile, savoring the delicious taste. The weather had turned quite moist and it had been raining on and off, ensuring that the fish on the pile always seemed fresh. Being a RiverClan apprentice the brown tabby was not annoyed at getting her pelt wet, and could therefore be rather fond of the recent weather. In fact, the only thing that really bothered her was the concern of the streams encircling their camp flooding and causing them to have to move elsewhere within their territory for a while, but fortunately such an event didn't appear too likely at the moment.

The day was nearing its end and she had already finished her training for the day, allowing her a short time of relaxation. It was not raining at the moment, but it was still quite cool and felt rather nice. Taking another bite of the trout, she glanced around the camp. Several warriors lay about sharing tongues. Hollowflight was in Mothwing's den having a thorn removed from his pad, while Mistystar was conferring with the deputy, Reedwhisker, likely regarding the ShadowClan border. The situation there had only been growing worse as of late, but it was unlikely that a battle would occur within the next few days at least.

"Mind if I join you?" came a nearby mew. Fawnpaw turned away from where the leader and deputy sat to see Willowshine looking at her expectantly with a fish held loosely in her jaws.

For a moment the brown tabby simply stared at her, a little surprised, but then gathered herself and replied uncertaintly, "Sure." The medicine cat apprentice dipped her head to the apprentice in thanks and then settled down beside Fawnpaw, putting down her fish and taking a small bite.

Fawnpaw wasn't entirely sure why the gray tabby had chosen to eat with her, as the two hadn't spoken to each other that much in previous times. Still, she supposed that it was nice to have someone actually acknowledge her for a change. Taking another bite of her trout, she chewed thoughtfully, trying to come up with something to say. After swallowing she asked a little tentatively, "Do you think there's going to be a battle with ShadowClan?"

Willowshine seemed to take a moment to think before responding. "Well, if ShadowClan keeps making trouble at the border, we'll eventually have to fight them to end this I guess. I'm not sure we'd actually gain anything from a battle though but an end to this conflict with them, and some wounds that would need to be treated."

Fawnpaw considered the medicine cat's view for a few minutes as she finished the trout. Willowshine might be right in the way that a battle wouldn't really do anything but end the whole matter. "You might be right," she mewed. "But it would gain us something else wouldn't it? ShadowClan's respect?"

The gray tabby shrugged, swallowing a bite of fish before answering, "Maybe. They'd probably stop messing with us for a while if we won, though I'm not sure if it would be out of respect or wounds. I don't think ShadowClan ever really has much respect for any of the other clans."

Unsure of what to say to that, Fawnpaw just nodded and simply sat there as she had finished her trout by this point. The two remained in a bit of an awkward silence for several moments as Willowshine finished her own fish. Upon swallowing the last bite the gray tabby stood up and stretched, then turned her blue gaze to Fawnpaw and asked, "I'm supposed to go out and gather some herbs, would you mind helping me? Normally Mothwing would go with me but she's got her paws busy at the moment."

"Not at all," Fawnpaw replied, a little surprised at the request but nonetheless glad to be invited to do something. "I'm happy to help." She stood up, stretching her legs eagerly.

Willowshine smiled cheerfully. "Thanks," she mewed kindly. "Let's go." The medicine cat apprentice headed out of the camp with Fawnpaw following closely, and they had soon crossed one of the streams that surrounded the camp. Willowshine seemed to be heading toward the western edge of RiverClan territory, and stopped in an area somewhat close to the ShadowClan border.

"I can usually find some catmint growing around here," the gray tabby told Fawnpaw. "With the rain we can probably find some growing. I'd prefer to fill our store now before it gets colder and I can't find any since we'll probably have at least one case of greencough this leafbare. You know what it looks like?"

The apprentice nodded. She had seen Mothwing bringing some into the camp one time and could distinctly remember its delicious smell and leafy appearance. "I'll look for some," she offered.

"Alright, it shouldn't be too hard to find, just search around this area and maybe a little closer to the border if you need to and gather as much as you can. I'll go near the twolegplace and see if I can find some more sorrel. I don't imagine anyone will be traveling anytime soon but you never know so I'd like to stock up," Willowshine told her, padding off in the direction of the ShadowClan border.

Fawnpaw didn't entirely understand everything Willowshine said about sorrel and traveling but supposed that it was medicine cat stuff and pushed it aside. She was faintly worried about the medicine cat apprentice being alone so close to the ShadowClan border, but was fairly hopeful that no warrior would go so far as to attack a medicine cat. Besides, the gray tabby probably knew how to handle herself if a bad situation arose.

She turned her attention to finding some catmint, trying to detect any trace of its distinct smell while scanning the ground in the hopes of spotting it. Having no luck, she padded in the direction of the ShadowClan border as Willowshine had suggested and picked up the scent of some catmint. She eagerly swept her gaze over the damp grass in every direction as she headed closer to the smell, and finally caught the sight of a few catmint plants growing near the base of a small bush.

The tabby leaned down and plucked some, feeling exhilarated as the wonderful scent filled her nose and the crisp taste flooded her mouth. She plucked what seemed to her a good amount and set it all down in a pile, forcing herself to resist the temptation of eating it herself. Gathering her wits, she felt prepared to pick the herb up again and go to find Willowshine when a strange new scent arrived, nearly blocking out the delightful catmint smell.

Frowning, Fawnpaw sat down and sniffed the air, trying to determine what the scent was. Indeed, it smelled like a cat, but not one of any of the clans. Fur bristling, she looked around, trying to figure out where the cat was as it smelled as if it was nearby. Suddenly, she spotted a cream she-cat who seemed to be approaching the apprentice. _An intruder!_

"Hello there," the strange she-cat mewed cheerfully in greeting.

Fawnpaw glared coldly at the cat. "What are you doing on RiverClan territory?" she challenged, pulling back her lips to expose her teeth threateningly.

"I saw you and just thought that I might speak to you," the she-cat responded calmly, smiling kindly. "You looked like you could use some company, as I could as well."

Fawnpaw was a bit put off by the she-cat's friendly demeanor, but quickly shook it off. "You aren't supposed to be here."

"I have no intention of staying. I know that you clan cats don't like others on your territory," the she-cat replied. "But could we at least be polite? My name is Pearl; perhaps it would be no trouble to tell me yours?" She still did not seem bothered by the apprentice's hostility in the least.

Fawnpaw blinked; still rather confused by the way the she-cat was acting. Normally trespassing cats tended to be aggressive, but Pearl was definitely far from that. The she-cat hesitated for a moment before replying. "My name is Fawnpaw."

"It's nice to meet you, then, Fawnpaw," Pearl told her warmly. "A weird sort of name, but I suppose your way of life is different than mine. And I'm guessing by what you said earlier that you're a RiverClan cat?"

"Yes," Fawnpaw replied. "And obviously you're not a clan cat."

"Nope," the cream she-cat mewed breezily. "I'm what a clan cat like you would probably call a loner. My mother lived with what you would call twolegs, but I grew curious of the world and left that life when I was young. I like to travel a lot, though I usually stay in nice spots for a while before venturing to someplace new."

"That must be an interesting way to live," Fawnpaw replied with a small smile. "You've probably seen lots of things."

Pearl grinned at this. "Indeed. There's a lot more to the world than a cat might think."

"How do you know what you do about the clans?" Fawnpaw inquired.

"Well, you might not talk to anyone outside of your clans, but for a loner like me I generally like to chat a little with most cats I come across. While coming down here I heard word of your clans and learned a little about them from a few cats. You can't believe everything someone tells you, of course, but I believe that most of what I've been told is true. At least it seems that way."

Listening to the loner's reply, Fawnpaw suddenly realized that she was conversing with a cat from outside of the clan! A cat who was trespassing on RiverClan territory! She ought to chase her off and then take the catmint to Willowshine. And yet, looking at the friendly she-cat, she decided that she was no threat to anything. Of course the loner would have to leave, but that didn't mean that she had to be hostile about it.

"It was nice talking to you, Pearl, but you can't stay here. You have to get off of our territory," the brown tabby told her tentatively.

Pearl nodded understandably. "I know. I'll leave willingly; there's no need to go savage on me or anything. Still, it was nice talking to you; we should meet up again sometime. I could tell you about some of those many things that I've seen."

"I can't," Fawnpaw told her, feeling sad at the fact that the only cat who had ever been very friendly toward her wasn't in her own clan. "I'm not supposed to talk to cats outside of RiverClan like this."

"That's fine, I understand," the loner mewed gently. "But if you ever do want to chat for a little while just go to your clan's border west of here and I'll likely be thereabouts. I'd be happy to talk again sometime." The she-cat dipped her head to Fawnpaw and then turned and padded off. The apprentice watched her until she was out of sight, feeling both lonelier than ever and happy at actually having had a nice conversation with a cat.

Turning her attention back to clan matters, she wondered if she should inform her clan about the encounter with Pearl. On one paw, it was in some ways her duty to do so. On the other paw, however, the she-cat didn't seem to pose any threat to RiverClan and they already had enough problems to worry about. The apprentice decided that it would be best just to not mention it, and if she covered the loner's scent they would be never the wiser. Picking up some catmint, she rubbed it along the ground where Pearl had been, and waved it through the air, spreading the delicious smell thickly in the area until only a trace of Pearl's scent lingered and it was likely that only a cat actually trying to detect the scent would ever do so.

Satisfied, Fawnpaw picked up the rest of the catmint and headed off in the direction that Willowshine had gone, following her scent. She arrived right up next to the ShadowClan border in an area very close to the twolegplace. Realizing that the gray tabby's scent was a little stale, she guessed that the she-cat must have left for camp without her. Heart sinking, she turned and sullenly returned to camp.

Upon arriving there she placed the catmint down at the entrance to the medicine den and then immediately headed for her nest as it was rather late. As she settled into her nest, it started to rain lightly. Lifting a paw to groom her head, she saw a raindrop in front of the entrance to the warriors' den suddenly move, seemingly at the flick of her paw. It was rather odd, but feeling too tired to worry about it the brown tabby simply shook it off and laid her head down, trying to get to sleep.


	8. Chapter 6

A heavy storm had arrived at the territories of the four clans, bringing with it a full arsenal of rain, thunder, lightning, and brutal winds. Despite its constant blows upon them, the cats had still been managing to go about their usual activities, though most of them could of course be heard complaining. Even some of those who were normally cheerful were liable to grumbling about the relentless conditions here and there.

Snowpaw and his siblings had been out battle training with their mentors for quite some time. Like those of his siblings and mentors, the white tom's pelt was drenched and covered in mud. While the weather was not very ideal for tussling with another cat, he knew that you couldn't count on ideal weather for a battle and that this was good experience for such a situation. With this thought in mind, he was taking note on everything he could for the future during each session.

He had already discovered that he was an excellent fighter. His skill exceeded that of Amberpaw and Dewpaw considerably, and while one of the warriors could still best him, he was able to put up a good fight beforehand. With further training and practice he believed that he might achieve his goal of being one of ThunderClan's best fighters, and maybe even come to be near as good as Lionblaze. The golden tom was the apprentice's idol, and Snowpaw admired his position in ThunderClan as he was still its best fighter despite the loss of his powers.

At present Amberpaw and Dewpaw were facing each other. Their mentors had showed them how to rush at your enemy's belly and topple them over, causing them to become unsettled for a moment and giving you an advantage. Snowpaw had already practiced with Dewpaw earlier and been able to do the move fairly well after a couple of tries. Dewpaw had then tried it on him and managed to perform it correctly after a few of failed attempts and some frustrated grumbling.

Now it was Amberpaw's turn. The she-cat had already proven throughout their training that she was quite incompetent at many things, and Snowpaw felt a little sorry for her mentor, Bumblestripe. The white-and-gray she-cat had so far had great difficulty with performing any of the battle moves shown to her, and had trouble hunting as well, having only finally caught her first piece of prey the previous day; a scrawny mouse.

The white-and-gray she-cat's amber eyes were full of uncertainty as she stared at her brother, seeming to be trying to get herself to perform the move. After several moments she finally leaped toward the tom's belly but he quickly moved to the side and dodged her, then jumped at her as she landed and toppled her over instead.

Bumblestripe sighed. "Amberpaw, you need to be faster next time. By taking your time you allowed him to realize exactly when you were going to jump, so he was prepared for you."

"Sorry," Amberpaw meowed quietly as she got up, shaking some mud off of her pelt. "I just wanted to make sure I jumped right."

Snowpaw watched as she and Dewpaw went at it several more times, shaking his head as he saw her continuously fail. Bumblestripe seemed to be trying to be as patient as possible while Blossomfall and Toadstep both looked on, seeming to pity their fellow mentor for getting stuck with such an apprentice.

After the most recent try Dewpaw stood up, shaking in an attempt to free some of the mud from his fur. "Can't we do this at a time when my fur won't get messed up?" he complained irritably.

"Be quiet," Blossomfall replied sternly. Turning to Snowpaw she told him, "Show Amberpaw how to do it."

"Alright," he replied happily, padding over to where he was facing the gray tom. After a second he dove confidently at Dewpaw's belly and managed to knock him over. Knowing that the snobby tom had no chance of beating him, Snowpaw then rushed on top of him as he was trying to get up and pushed him to the ground triumphantly.

"Well done," Toadstep told his apprentice from where he sat watching.

"Get off of me, mousebrain," Dewpaw hissed in annoyance, trying to push the white tom off of him.

"Why? Don't you enjoy being a stick in the mud?" Snowpaw joked, but stood up and padded away from his brother after a couple of moments to see what Amberpaw had thought of the demonstration. Suddenly, there was an extremely loud bout of thunder and the she-cat shrieked, her pelt bristling with fear, and asked anxiously, "What's that?"

"Calm down, it's thunder," Bumblestripe told her with a sigh. "Still, I suppose we've done enough for today; let's head back to camp."

No one had any reason to argue with this, so the group began to pad back to camp. Snowpaw saw that Amberpaw still looked quite nervous from the thunder, and being in a lighthearted mood he decided to sneak up on her. Making sure to place his paws softly, the tom crept up behind her and then suddenly let out a loud yowl. He watched with amusement as the apprentice let out an even louder shriek than earlier and began to race off to camp.

However, the grin on Snowpaw's face soon disappeared as he glanced at the others and saw that they were all glaring at him. "Snowpaw, you know that you shouldn't have done that," Toadstep scolded him.

Snowpaw's tail drooped. "Sorry."

As the warriors turned and began to continue on, Dewpaw hissed to Snowpaw coldly, "Good job, now she'll be even more annoying than usual."

Snowpaw glared at his brother as the gray tom turned and followed the warriors, but knew that he shouldn't have scared Amberpaw like that. She freaked out much too easily. He kept to the back of the group as he headed back to camp sullenly, but found that there was a strange sort of sensation in one of his paws. Halting, the white tom moved it a little and felt some sort of a jolt of energy. It reminded him of the lightning of the storm, and upon moving his paw again he watched in fascination as a small electrical charge seemed to come off of it. Thinking more about the lightning, he made a big movement with his paw and suddenly a much larger charge erupted from it and hit the ground, startling the apprentice.

"Snowpaw, come on!" the white tom heard Toadstep call a moment later. Still shaking, he bounded back over to the group and rejoined them as they continued to walk back to camp.

_I just made lightning…_ he thought, uncertain about it yet somehow excited as well. _I can make lightning! Other cats can't do that, or at least none that I know of. Which means that I'm special, right? I'm not like other cats!_

Entering the camp with mixed feelings, the apprentice saw Lionblaze and immediately thought of the story of the Three. Scurrying over to the warrior, he gazed up at him with admiring amber eyes and mewed brightly, "Hi Lionblaze!"

The golden tom had an amused smile on his face as he peered down at the apprentice. "Hello Snowpaw, I can see you're still ThunderClan's loudest cat."

"What was it like to be a part of the Three and have powers and everything? Was it cool?" Snowpaw asked him curiously.

"Well, I suppose it was kind of cool," Lionblaze replied. "But also rather hard as it meant having a lot of responsibility and having to keep secrets from so many cats."

Snowpaw nodded. "How did you find out about your power?"

"Well, there were signs before I realized I had a power at all I guess as I fought in battles, but when I learned of the prophecy it became clear," the warrior mewed thoughtfully.

Snowpaw nodded in understanding and dipped his head to the tom before going over to the fresh-kill pile. Grabbing a vole he went off and sat by himself. Normally he would have found someone to eat with, but due to the recent event with creating lightning he wanted to have a little quiet to think.

_This is more than just a sign or something. This is obvious. I guess it would be more obvious than the battle thing since we normally fight battles but we normally don't create lightning… Still, what if this is a power? Maybe there's a new Three or something, and I'm a part of it. I don't know of any prophecy, but Lionblaze didn't at first either so that doesn't mean that another one of the Three doesn't know about it like with Jayfeather knowing about it in the story or something. I don't know, I guess I'll just have to wait and see…_

Thoughts were still swirling in his head as he finished the vole and went to the apprentices' den. Seeing that Dewpaw and Amberpaw were already asleep in their nests, he wondered if they could be the other parts of the Three. It might be possible, but he kind of doubted that Amberpaw was. She was just too clumsy and nervous and whatnot. Still, seeing as it could be so, he decided that he would apologize to her in the morning. He needed her to be okay with him so that he could see whether or not she might have any powers.

Settling down in his nest, Snowpaw looked outside at the storm and was suddenly reminded of his first day as an apprentice and the rumble of thunder. Molefoot had said that a storm must be coming, but the sky had been clear and had remained clear for the rest of that day. Suspicious, he thought about how it had seemed to happen just as he had landed on the ground. Thinking about the thunder he smacked one of his paws down on the den floor and a round of thunder followed. Trying it several times he found that he indeed seemed to be causing it.

_I can create thunder and lightning. I suppose I truly am special. And perhaps have a great destiny ahead of me…_

_Author's Note:__ I know that it's ThunderClan and not LightningClan or anything, but I just felt like having the powers of thunder wouldn't really be that fantastic and wouldn't stand up to the other powers, so he sort of has lightning powers too as thunder and lightning go together. They all have multiple abilities that relate to their clans though so it's all good. Oh, and I apologize for this somewhat crappy chapter. I had a bit of trouble with figuring out what to put in it and everything, but the next one should be better hopefully._


	9. Chapter 7

Swiftpaw blinked open her eyes as feeble dawn light floated into the old fox den that apprentices often slept in when the weather became dreary like that as of late. The black-and-white she-cat had been made an apprentice the previous day as well as Petalpaw. Swiftpaw's mentor was Sedgewhisker, while her sister had gotten Swallowtail, and the two warriors had taken them out to see the territory and become familiar with it yesterday.

It had been a fairly enjoyable experience, and she liked WindClan's open, free territory. After they had gone around and seen everything notable, Sedgewhisker had allowed them to simply watch her catch a rabbit. The sight of it had made Swiftpaw's paws tingle with anticipation at the idea of learning how to do that herself, but they hadn't had time to get into training at the moment.

Now, though, they would be able to start learning how to hunt and fight! With this thought in mind Swiftpaw went over to where Petalpaw was still fast asleep and shook her abruptly with her paws. "Get up!"

The brown she-cat opened her eyes sleepily and yawned. "Why do we have to get up so early?"

"We're WindClan's only apprentices right now," Swiftpaw reminded her. "We need to train hard."

Petalpaw sighed and stretched as she stood up. "Fine."

Swiftpaw padded eagerly out of the den with her sister following much more slowly. As the apprentices came out into the camp they realized that they were the only ones up besides WindClan's deputy, Ashfoot, who had been standing guard for the night.

"Well, I thought you'd be the last to rise or at least certainly not the first," the gray she-cat called to them, seemingly amused. "Normally new apprentices have trouble realizing that they're not in the nursery anymore."

"We're the only ones WindClan has at the moment so we've got to do our best," Swiftpaw mewed cheerfully.

"When will our mentors be up?" Petalpaw asked.

Ashfoot let out an amused mrrow of laughter. "The dawn patrol hasn't even gotten up quite yet or I'd be in my nest sleeping. Since your mentors aren't on that I'm sure they'll be a while. You can still make yourselves useful though and get some moss. Swallowtail and Sedgewhisker took you to the ThunderClan border yesterday, right?" After both apprentices had nodded, she told them, "Good. With the stream there you can probably find some moss. You'll be going alone, so be careful and maybe you can prove your worth." The deputy winked.

_This is a test of some sort I guess. She's seeing if we can handle ourselves without a warrior there to watch us. _"We'll have a lot of moss back here soon," Swiftpaw promised her. Turning to Petalpaw she mewed with enthusiasm, "Let's go!" and charged off out of the camp toward the border with ThunderClan. Wind rushed by the she-cat as her paws thrummed across the ground, carrying her closer and closer to her destination. Within a few minutes she had reached the border and sat down to rest for a moment before scanning the ground for moss.

The black-and-white she-cat had been gathering moss for a little while before her sister finally arrived. Swiftpaw smiled at her and greeted her playfully, "Hi there, what took you so long sleepyhead?"

The white-patched she-cat did not reply and instead started plucking moss from the ground silently. Swiftpaw stared at her for a few moments before returning to gathering moss, but inevitably started feeling quite discomforted by Petalpaw's demeanor. Pausing in her work the apprentice looked at her sister again and asked a little hesitantly, "Is something wrong?"

Suddenly, Petalpaw turned a fierce glare onto Swiftpaw and snapped irritably, "Why do you always have to show off?"

Swiftpaw flinched as her sister continued to stare at her with a fiery gaze and mewed quietly, "What do you mean?"

"I'm pretty sure you know perfectly well what I mean," Petalpaw hissed. "Back there in front of Ashfoot you just had to take off and show her how wonderfully fast you are compared to me."

Swiftpaw narrowed her eyes angrily as she listened to the accusation. "You think I was trying to show off my running to Ashfoot? You think I would do that?"

"Yes, because you did! Because you always do! You always run whenever you have a place to go and there's someone there to show off your speed to!"

"I don't show off to anyone!" Swiftpaw protested furiously. "You only think I do because you're jealous! You're always being jealous of me whenever I do something well because you can't handle it!"

"No, you're the one who can't handle it! That's why I always have to put up with you going out of your way to show off to everyone!" Petalpaw spat.

Swiftpaw was shaking with anger at her sister's proposal that she spent her time showing off to her clanmates all of the time. She couldn't help it that she was faster than her and that she liked to run! As her temper reached its boiling point, she found herself instinctively lifting up a paw and moving to strike her sister in the face. As the paw moved, Swiftpaw realized that with it came a violent wind that stung her sister in the face before the paw struck harshly. It all happened so fast and so naturally that she didn't realize what she had just done until it was over. Luckily her claws had been sheathed.

Petalpaw let out a yowl of pain, but didn't seem to have noticed the wind, instead perhaps thinking that it had only been the paw striking her. She leaned down and grabbed her moss before racing back to camp without caring to even cast a glare at her sister.

Swiftpaw was then left alone. She still felt terribly angry at Petalpaw and now also guilty about hitting her in the face, but moreover she was quite puzzled. She struck out with her paw again and felt wind rushing through the air. Alarmed at this, the apprentice repeated the action several more times until she had definitely verified that it was real. Suddenly remembering her extraordinarily fast running, the she-cat grabbed her moss and took off back to camp.

As she ran, thoughts swirled through her head. This recent fight with Petalpaw troubled her deeply as she knew that the brown she-cat did not forgive easily even for the smallest of things. One night when they were younger kits, Heathertail had picked Petalpaw up and put her into the nest only for the kit to squeal with pain as there was a thorn in that spot. Their mother had felt terribly guilty and had apologized to her daughter, but Petalpaw had still remained angry with her for several days and refused to sleep in their nest until finally she had grown too tired of sleeping on the ground and gotten over it. This event was far worse than that one though and Swiftpaw feared that it would be a long while until she and Petalpaw were finally okay again.

The other matter that occupied the black-and-white she-cat's thoughts was the apparent creation of wind by her paw. Such a thing couldn't be possible at all, and yet it had certainly seemed like that was what was going on…

It was not long before she was back in camp. When she saw Petalpaw not that far in front of her, it seemed that she was still panting from her run and had perhaps only arrived a few moments prior to Swiftpaw. This made no sense at all, as Petalpaw had left several minutes before her…

_I can apparently create breezes with my paw. Maybe I'm not just unusually fast, _Swiftpaw thought uncertainly. _Maybe I'm impossibly fast…_

Whether or not she could run faster than any other cat could run, Swiftpaw knew that inevitably her first day of training as an apprentice had been ruined. She was still a little angry with Petalpaw, but had by now calmed down and realized that she probably had good reason to think that she was purposely showing off. Swiftpaw was willing to put it behind her if only Petalpaw could come to be too. Instead of wanting to learn how to chase rabbits or spar with another cat, Swiftpaw now only wished for her sister's forgiveness.


	10. Chapter 8

_Author's Note: __Lack of updates has been due to a new addiction to a game as well as a bit of a lack of inspiration. I'm going to start working on this story regularly again though and hope to get a few more chapters out here before I go on vacation as well. Anyways, this isn't exactly the most exciting chapter in the world, pretty much just filler stuff. With the next chapter however things begin to pick up and I'm gonna be editing the outline here too and need to plan out more chapters so I'll start trying to make them more exciting and whatnot. There's just a lot of stuff that has to develop before the action can really start but we'll be getting some here soon. :)_

It was the night of the Gathering, and the moon hung bright and full in the smooth black night sky. About it were clusters of clouds that seemed anxiously awaiting any reason to disrupt the moonlight, which perhaps reflected StarClan's feelings upon the matter of the recent tensions on both of ShadowClan's borders. If this was so, Ravenpaw knew that he shared in his ancestors' unease.

The most recent event regarding the border disputes was that of a skirmish on the ThunderClan border that had left a few lasting marks on Dewpaw and Dawnpelt. A battle would likely have already occurred between the two clans if it were not for the signs that the coming leafbare would be particularly harsh, which made the clan leaders hesitant about doing anything that could potentially weaken their clans. Ravenpaw felt worried though that such concerns were only delaying an inevitable battle that would make them vulnerable to any actions taken by RiverClan.

Hearing Blackstar's call, the apprentice finished the remainder of his toad and went to join the rest of the group that had been chosen to go to the Gathering. This would be the second one that he had the opportunity to attend. Hearing the other apprentices nearby, he turned to see Sparrowpaw and Dewpaw sulking next to a cheerful Mistpaw.

"Why do you get to go to the Gathering and not us?" Dewpaw mewed as she gazed at her sister with envy.

"Well, you're still a bit scratched up from the skirmish on the ThunderClan border," Mistpaw reminded her sister calmly. "And Sparrowpaw, you gave Whitewater that piece of crowfood…"

"Yeah, but I meant it as a joke, I didn't think that she would actually try to eat it," Sparrowpaw defended himself. "I know that she can't see out of both of her eyes but I'm pretty sure any cat would have noticed that it wasn't exactly fresh-kill…"

"Whatever, she didn't exactly find it funny after taking a bite out of it and so now you're paying for your little prank," Mistpaw meowed with a grin. "Justice."

"Hey." Ravenpaw turned away from the three apprentices as Fieldpaw came up beside him. As the medicine cat apprentice she was of course going to the Gathering.

"Hey," Ravenpaw returned in greeting. He padded beside the tortoiseshell she-cat as the group began heading out of the camp and toward the island that the four clans used for Gatherings.

"Noticed any new strange things lately?" Fieldpaw asked him in a hushed tone.

Ravenpaw shook his head. "Nothing." A few moments of silence passed before he mewed, "Dawnpelt still looks a little beat up from that incident on our border with ThunderClan."

Fieldpaw nodded with a look of concern in her eyes. "She received some nasty scratches and Littlecloud is afraid that they might have gotten infected. Unfortunately I'm sure that there'll be some worse wounds given out here before this stuff with them is over."

"Yeah. We're just about to the point of a real battle here," Ravenpaw agreed. "I'm guessing this won't be the friendliest Gathering ever."

Fieldpaw nodded and then turned away from him; seemingly lost in her concerns. Ravenpaw decided to put the problems with RiverClan and ThunderClan out of his mind for the moment as they arrived at RiverClan territory and approached the tree bridge to the island. The small black tom followed his sister in scrambling onto the tree and sinking his claws into the slippery bark as he cautiously made his way to the island.

Upon their arrival the ShadowClan cats found that WindClan was the only other clan present, and as it was the only clan that ShadowClan didn't have a problem with they began to mingle with ease. Fieldpaw mewed a goodbye to him before padding off to join Littlecloud and Kestrelflight, leaving Ravenpaw by himself. The apprentice sat down and curled his tail around his paws as he observed the chatting cats silently.

"Hello there," came the voice of a she-cat. Ravenpaw looked at the WindClan apprentice to whom it belonged as she approached him. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.

"Not at all," the black tom responded politely as he dipped his head in greeting.

"Thanks," the she-cat meowed. Her pelt was brown and covered in an array of white patches. "This is my first Gathering."

She did look a bit young. "This will be my second," Ravenpaw mewed. "I wasn't chosen to go to the last one."

"I guess you're a lot farther into your apprentice training than me then," the WindClan she-cat replied lightly. "I'm Petalpaw by the way."

"Ravenpaw," he returned. Before Petalpaw could reply to this, RiverClan arrived. The sleek-pelted cats deliberately kept away from ShadowClan though some of them seemed to be talking with WindClan cats.

"ShadowClan has been having a lot of trouble with clan rivalry lately huh," Petalpaw remarked as they observed the cats.

"Yeah," Ravenpaw said. "This is just the beginning I believe unfortunately."

"I guess WindClan is lucky to be at peace for the moment," the brown she-cat acknowledged. "Unfortunately there's still the issue of rivalry within one's clan." She appeared to be upset about something.

"Something bothering you?" he mewed after a slight pause.

"Well…" Petalpaw hesitated for a couple of seconds before continuing. "It's my sister, Swiftpaw. We were always good friends when we were kits. But lately after becoming apprentices things have kind of gotten sour between us. She just always has to do better than me and shadow me in every way she can and when I tried to confront her about it she almost clawed my face." The apprentice stopped for a second as ThunderClan arrived before continuing. "I guess she's always sort of been this way but when we were kits it didn't matter as much because we just played stupid games all of the time. Now though she always gets praised by our mentors for her hunting skills and her fighting skills and how fast she can run and I just can't stand it anymore. Whenever I do something good she makes sure to do better so that no one else ever realizes that I'm a good apprentice too. It's just frustrating…"

Ravenpaw looked among the apprentices and saw only one other WindClan one who he guessed must be Swiftpaw. The black-and-white she-cat was talking to Mistpaw. Turning to Petalpaw he replied, "I can kind of relate. My sister Fieldpaw and I were good friends as apprentices but then she became a medicine cat apprentice and I don't really get to do much with her anymore. I mean we're still pretty close but things just aren't the same. She was always more into herbs and whatnot rather than fighting or hunting but it was different when we were kits just like with you and Swiftpaw…"

Petalpaw nodded though she didn't say anything as the leaders had begun to take their places on the Great Tree. All cats except those of WindClan had been keeping away from ShadowClan. Blackstar was stony faced upon his branch while Mistystar and Bramblestar were looking hostile. In contrast to them, Onestar looked fairly relaxed as WindClan was perfectly peaceful for the time being.

"Let's begin the Gathering now," the WindClan leader mewed calmly. "WindClan will report first. Prey is running well. We are strong and healthy and have two new apprentices: Swiftpaw and Petalpaw."

"RiverClan will report next," Mistystar declared quickly. "We are also healthy and the streams remain level despite the recent rain. Our only true concern is in ShadowClan's continuous meddling with the border marks."

The leader's words seemed as sharp as claws raking down the flanks of the ShadowClan cats. Ravenpaw watched coldly as Blackstar defended against the accusation. "We have done nothing with the border marks. It is the meddling of you, not us, which has led to all of this."

"Not true! You are the ones at fault here!" a RiverClan she-cat claimed fiercely from amidst the crowd of cats.

"That's a lie! RiverClan has always been a slippery bunch," Ratscar cried out.

"ShadowClan has also become shady regarding their border with ThunderClan," Bramblestar growled with a glare at Blackstar.

As the leaders began to snarl at one another, Ravenpaw looked up at the sky and felt confused when he saw that the moon remained bright and clearly viewable. The clouds around it hadn't moved to block it at all. Did StarClan approve of this extreme hostility against ShadowClan? Were their ancestors not going to make sure that the peace was kept?

"ShadowClan is leaving," Blackstar snapped harshly after a few minutes of further tensions. "The Gathering is over." The white tom jumped down from the tree and began to head toward the tree bridge. The group of ShadowClan cats began to turn and follow their leader, but not without casting a few final frosty glares at the RiverClan and ThunderClan cats.

As Ravenpaw turned to go with them, Petalpaw told him, "It was nice talking to you. Maybe I'll see you at my next Gathering. Bye."

"Bye," Ravenpaw returned before following his clanmates off of the island. After he had crossed the tree bridge, he found a variety of thoughts and concerns buzzing around in his head, but was unable to give them much consideration as he was soon joined by Fieldpaw once more. The siblings padded side by side back to the ShadowClan camp.

"I don't think this is going to end well. Both of the clans we share borders with are anxious to rip our pelts off," Fieldpaw mewed nervously after a time.

"We just have to hope that they don't decide to become allies I suppose," Ravenpaw responded. "But there is going to be bloodshed here."

As Fieldpaw continued to fret about the trials ahead for their clan, Ravenpaw looked up at the moon once more. _StarClan, why didn't you cover the moon? Would you have let the other clans attack us? Are you even watching over ShadowClan at all?_


	11. Chapter 9

_Author's Note:__ It's been a while, I know. I got really into a game, and then went on vacation, and then school started not long after that. I just kind of lost inspiration for this fanfiction. Recently though I reread Bluestar's Prophecy and kind of got back into the Warriors spirit, so the other day I felt like doing some Warriors writing and started working on this chapter. It was fun to write, and I think I'm going to start working on this more again. I have a lot less time due to school than I did when I started in the summer, so I'm not going to promise when I'll have the next chapter done, but it will be written. I need to work on the outline for this a lot first though maybe._

_Anyways, with this chapter we're actually getting the plot moving a little bit more. There's probably going to be a whole lot of chapters since there's a lot of things to develop and then eventually play out and whatnot from here to the end. (I mean, there's four main characters, and each comes with their whole set of crap going on hehe.)_

* * *

_Thwack! _

"Ow!" Snowpaw complained loudly as he sat up in his nest, his head thudding a little with pain from the force of his brother's paw. "What are you doing?"

"Waking you up," Dewpaw growled irritably. "We're supposed to be going on a border patrol with Toadstep, Blossomfall, and Cherrypelt."

Snowpaw peered past his brother out of the den entrance. The cloudy gray sky and chill in the air served as unconvincing evidence of the truth that it was fast approaching sunhigh. The white-pelted apprentice stretched his legs as he stood up, giving his flank a few quick licks. "Fine. Let's go."

The two apprentices padded out into the camp and were quickly greeted by a bitterly cold breeze that swept their pelts into disarray. "Great," Dewpaw muttered, while Snowpaw silently gazed around at the few activities going on. Cinderheart was watching Sunkit and Sootkit near the nursery entrance as they play fought with one another. Birchfall and Whitewing were sharing a sparrow, seemingly absorbed in a conversation about the coming troubles leafbare would bring. Jayfeather was sorting herbs in his den. It seemed as if most of the clan was out of the camp.

"Finally," Cherrypelt commented with relief as the toms arrived to meet up with the rest of the patrol at the camp entrance. "I thought we were never going to get started."

"You can blame Snowpaw," Dewpaw told her. "I don't think he'd wake up on his own if ShadowClan was invading the camp with every single warrior they have."

Snowpaw glared at the gray tom. "At least I'd know how to fight the ShadowClan warriors if they were invading," he mewed angrily.

Dewpaw growled in response but wasn't able to say anything as Blossomfall quickly interrupted. "Come on. We need to get to the WindClan border and renew the scent markers before hedgehogs fly." With a flick of her tail, the tortoiseshell quickly spun around and headed into the forest, and the remaining cats swiftly followed her lead.

The undergrowth was thick with fallen leaves that crunched underpaw as the cats made their way along, soon arriving at the WindClan border. Snowpaw peered down at the water rushing along the stream that marked where their territory ended and WindClan's moorland began, shivering as he imagined falling into the freezing depths. Why there was even a single clan that ever chose to swim was beyond him.

Opening his mouth to taste the air, the white tom's ears pricked up as he detected the scent of mouse. Glancing at the rest of the patrol, he could see them remarking the border, and decided that he would go hunt for a moment. Sniffing, the apprentice realized that the scent came from further along the border.

Excitement tingled in his paws as he headed further from his patrol. _While Dewpaw's back there complaining about the wind messing up his pelt, I'll be the one who's actually taking care of the clan._

Snowpaw froze as he spotted the mouse ahead through the trees. The small, furry brown creature was farther into ThunderClan territory than the apprentice had expected. Lying low to the ground by the trunk of a tree so as not to be spotted, he could see the prey nibbling at something it held in its tiny paws. Just as he was about to start slinking toward it, he felt a particularly violent gust of wind hit his flank.

Turning away from the mouse for a moment, he glanced over toward the WindClan border where the breeze had come from. It was a windy day, but the gust had seemed far more forceful than the one that had hit him and Dewpaw earlier. After a moment he was about to shrug it off and turn back to hunting when a volley of strong breezes, one after the other, stung his face.

Abandoning the mouse, the white tom padded in the direction of the wind curiously. As he neared the WindClan border, he soon spotted a she-cat sitting along the edge, her paws lifted in the air. She had the appearance of an apprentice, and her fur was black and white. Having never been to a Gathering before, Snowpaw had no way of knowing who she was. As he stared at her, he saw the WindClan apprentice move her paws in the air, and at that same moment he could feel gusts of wind rushing by him in the directions that she had moved her paws.

Within an instant, his eyes lit up as the memory of the lightning and thunder he had created came into his head. Without a second thought he immediately bounded toward the apprentice, and she seemed to be rather startled as he halted across from her.

"Hi!" Snowpaw mewed excitedly.

"Oh, hello," the she-cat replied in a surprised tone.

"I'm Snowpaw," he introduced himself.

"Swiftpaw," the WindClan apprentice replied a little warily.

"Don't worry, I know that you weren't trying to hunt on our territory or anything," Snowpaw informed her. "I saw you creating the wind."

Swiftpaw was immediately taken aback. "Creating wind? What are you talking about?"

"You don't have to hide it from me," the white tom meowed proudly. "I'm special too."

Suddenly Swiftpaw's uncertain gaze turned into a glare. "I'm not special!" she snapped. As Snowpaw backed away a little bit, the she-cat's anger faded and she mewed quietly, "Sorry, it's just that cats thinking I'm special and wonderful and everything has kind of made a mess of things with me and my sister lately… I guess I am kind of special since I _was _creating wind and everything…"

Snowpaw didn't really understand what Swiftpaw was talking about but nodded anyway. "It's okay," he told her. "I can create stuff too. Here, I'll show you."

The ThunderClan apprentice raised his paw enthusiastically. After a quick look at Swiftpaw to make sure that she was watching, he thought of lightning and brought the paw down as quickly as he could. Instantly, a bolt of lightning came from his paw and struck the ground. For a moment he was temporarily blinded from the burst of light before his vision adjusted and he could see the she-cat gazing at him in awe.

Before Swiftpaw managed to comment on his abilities, however, they could hear Toadstep calling for his apprentice. Knowing that the patrol could come this way any moment and catch him with a WindClan cat, the white tom swiftly turned to the black-and-white she-cat and mewed, "Meet me here tonight."

"What?" Snowpaw heard Swiftpaw mew in surprise as he raced back to his patrol, and he wondered if she was going to come. Surely she would. They could be a part of a new Three or something! There was so much to discuss! As the apprentice returned to where he had left Toadstep, Blossomfall, Dewpaw, and Cherrypelt, he found that they were all staring at him accusingly.

"Where were you?" his mentor demanded. "We finished marking the border without you!"

"I smelled a mouse and went off to chase it, but it crossed the border before I could catch it," Snowpaw lied confidently.

"Yeah, right," Dewpaw scoffed. "You probably went off to chase butterflies or something."

"It took you that long to fail at catching a single mouse?" Cherrypelt mewed.

"Next time, you should focus more on the task at paw," Toadstep told him. "And it's usually okay to hunt on a border patrol if you scent something, but if you're going to spend that much of the time hunting rather than marking the border it's important that you actually catch something."

Snowpaw suffered silently through his mentor's chastisements, but inwardly felt quite annoyed. He hadn't just been off wasting time. He had been talking to a cat who was important for the future of the clans just like he was! Of course, they couldn't know that. He supposed that Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Dovewing had probably had to suffer the misunderstanding of their clanmates as they prepared to save the four clans. _If they could manage it, so can I._

The patrol headed back to camp shortly, but Snowpaw knew that Toadstep was disappointed with him and would probably tell him to help with the elders' ticks later. And that was a task better suited for Amberpaw, not a cat like him who had been chosen by StarClan and was good at hunting and fighting. His sister often struggled to catch a single piece of fresh-kill or perform any battle move correctly. She had already frustrated Bumblestripe so much yesterday that her mentor had assigned her to cleaning out the elders' bedding on the current day rather than training.

As they returned to camp, Snowpaw spotted the gray-and-white she-cat coming out of the elders' den with various bits of moss and bracken stuck to her pelt. He was about to go over and ask her if she wanted to share a piece of fresh-kill when he heard another cat call out, "Hey, Snowpaw!" Turning in the direction of the exclamation he saw that it was Seedpaw.

"Want to share this vole with me?" the ginger she-cat asked him, motioning toward the plump prey lying at her paws.

"Sure," Snowpaw replied, padding over to the older apprentice and sitting down beside her. As the white tom took a bite of the vole, Seedpaw glanced over at Amberpaw.

"Poor Amberpaw," Seedpaw remarked sympathetically. "Having to spend the day cleaning out bedding instead of training when she didn't even really do anything wrong."

Snowpaw swallowed and replied with a frown, "That's not exactly true. She's done everything wrong. The problem is that she hasn't done anything right."

"I don't think it's her fault though," the she-cat responded. "She's just clumsy and nervous. That's who she is."

Snowpaw shrugged. "I suppose you're probably right, but she won't become a warrior anytime soon at this rate." There was a short pause as Seedpaw took a bite of the vole before Snowpaw inquired, "Where's Lilypaw?"

"Out on a hunting patrol," the ginger she-cat meowed. "She would have already been on one but Dovewing wanted to get in a little battle training with her earlier since she's a little lacking in that area still."

Snowpaw nodded his head as he chewed on some more of the vole, looking up at the sky for a moment. It was beginning to grow darker and the sun was sinking in the sky. It wouldn't be long before it set, and he would go meet with Swiftpaw.

* * *

Inky blackness consumed the warriors' den, making it difficult for Snowpaw to figure out where to place his paws as he headed out into the camp. Soon, moonlight washed over his pelt like a crashing wave, further brightening his white pelt. The apprentice peered over toward the camp entrance where Thornclaw stood guard, the golden brown tabby's eyes intently staring out into the forest.

Making sure to move as silently as possible, Snowpaw sneaked around the edge of the camp to reach the dirtplace tunnel. Holding his breath, he swiftly padded through the unappealing exit and into the crowd of tall trees where ThunderClan cats stalked about in search of prey during the day. At night it was a little eerie, illuminated by silver starlight with the hooting of owls echoing through the thick darkness.

The ThunderClan tom headed forward through the familiar territory toward the WindClan border, starting to go faster as he remembered what he and Swiftpaw needed to talk about. _We have powers. We're destined for greatness._

Upon approaching the stream he made sure to walk to where he had met with Swiftpaw earlier that day. It did not take him long to spot the WindClan apprentice sitting on the other side of the blue ribbon of water, her yellow eyes seeming to be searching among the trees for Snowpaw. He padded forward into her field of vision and mewed, "Hey! It's nice to see you again. I'm glad you decided to come."

"Well, it's hard not to be curious when you see a cat create lightning," Swiftpaw admitted with a smile.

"That's true. And actually, that's not all I can do," Snowpaw told her boastfully. To demonstrate, he lifted a paw and smacked it down on the ground, feeling greatly pleased when he heard the clap of thunder that he had made.

"Wow," Swiftpaw said excitedly. "I can do more than create wind too. Watch."

The black-and-white she-cat began to race around the edge of the border. She was so fast that Snowpaw couldn't even see her clearly, and he grinned zealously. "Cool! We both have some pretty awesome abilities like the Three did."

"Oh, that was such a fun story when I was a kit, which wasn't that long ago I guess," the young she-cat meowed cheerfully. "I guess we do sort of have powers like they did."

"Exactly," Snowpaw replied with a nod. "Maybe we were meant to meet here earlier."

"What do you mean?" the WindClan she-cat asked.

"Well, we don't just have these powers for nothing, right? Surely StarClan meant for us to be this way just as they did with the Three. Maybe we have great destinies like they did, and we were supposed to meet each other here so that we can fulfill a prophecy or something."

Swiftpaw looked a little doubtful. "But what prophecy would we need to fulfill? There's nothing big threatening the clans right now. And if there was one, wouldn't we know about it?"

"How do we know there's no big threat to the clans? They didn't know about the Dark Forest and everything for a long time," Snowpaw pointed out. "As for the prophecy, all of the Three didn't know about it, remember? Only Jayfeather knew for a while until eventually he told the others. There are probably others besides just the two of us, and one of them might know about a prophecy or something."

"That makes sense," Swiftpaw agreed. The apprentice seemed to think for a moment and then added, "If there are other cats with powers like us, maybe they're in the other clans since we're in different clans and it's kind of like what we can do is based on our clan names. You know, like how you can create thunder while I can create wind?"

The ThunderClan apprentice wasn't entirely fond of the idea of one being in filthy ShadowClan. "There could be a cat in RiverClan or something I guess," he conceded hesitantly. "Or they could be in our clans too for all we know."

"True. How about we meet up at the next Gathering to scout out any possible cats with powers but observe our clanmates in the meantime?" Swiftpaw suggested.

"Okay," Snowpaw mewed. He glanced up at the sky and saw that it had grown slightly lighter. He needed to head back. "I'll see you there then."

"See you then," Swiftpaw told him in farewell, and the two cats departed to go to their respective camps. As Snowpaw headed through the near-silent forest, he couldn't help but feel a little energetic despite having not gone to sleep yet. _Who needs to sleep? I'm going to be even greater than Lionblaze, or maybe even Firestar…_


End file.
